A uniquely dazzling setting undermined by muddled worldbuilding.
A young tailor and a mysteriously familiar time savant must save time travelers from a terrible fate in this queer fantasy romance.
Calisto lives in the town of Pocket, a place that’s outside of time—it’s the waystation time travelers must pass through on their journeys to other whens. There they work as a tailor, creating beautifully detailed and accurate costumes for the travelers. Calisto never plans to travel through time themself—until Fawkes arrives. A time savant, Fawkes has been traveling through time since he was a child, slipping easily from one time to another without having to pass through Pocket. His talents also mean he catches glimpses of the future—and he’s seen Calisto before. But close behind Fawkes are the Time Wardens, who want time to be strictly regulated, which means getting rid of travelers. Together, Calisto and Fawkes will have to master their temporal abilities to stop the Time Wardens and save Pocket—and along the way, they fall in love. The rich and beautifully drawn world that readers will want to lose themselves in is unfortunately let down by a plot that collapses in on itself under the weight of explanations of time travel and its aftereffects that get progressively more convoluted and confusing. An introductory note indicates that the book has been translated from Seam, the language used in Pocket, which uses “natural measures of time: sunlight, seasons, stars.” The main characters present white.
A uniquely dazzling setting undermined by muddled worldbuilding. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781536233711
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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