Rough and raw.
This new installment in the Sea Breeze series highlights abusive families, romance, and sex—quite a lot of it.
Trisha struggles to hide the visible signs of the beatings she often receives from her stepmother’s boyfriends. She knows that if the authorities learn of her plight, they will separate her from her beloved little brother. She has lusted after Rock, the high school football star, since she first glimpsed him a year earlier—and he’s done likewise. Although a year has passed, he’s determined at least to become friends with her. She doesn’t trust him, as she knows that girls throw themselves at him, and he’s apparently had sex with nearly every girl in town. But when Rock learns about Trisha’s abuse, he steps in to save her. Glines writes of Trisha’s abusive family fairly compellingly, with most of the plot relying on her plight. At its heart, however, it’s a standard romance in which true love is always instant and eternal, and characters are supermodel beautiful and one-dimensional. This is a new-adult book, and the story eventually resolves into a focus on sex.
Rough and raw. (Romance. 16 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3621-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Would have been truly stellar if not for the missed opportunities for positive representation.
Ava and Gideon are two wounded young people whose unexpected connection provokes the best and worst in each other in this witty Australian import.
Ava is mourning the loss of her best friend, Kelly; Gideon is in the throes of anxiety and depression. As Ava’s life unravels following Kelly’s suicide, Gideon joins her as a fellow employee at The Magic Kebab. The two strike up a bond commiserating over rude customers, Gideon’s poetry, old-fashioned letters they write and mail to one another, and a boss with an unfortunate tattoo. Gideon doesn’t know that Ava is very much involved with her deceased friend’s brother, Lincoln, and Ava doesn’t know how much Gideon is in love with her. Told in alternating voices, this page-turning novel displays a great deal of artful charm. The only low points are the casual amusement Ava displays in response to her Greek immigrant grandmother’s racist remarks. This is particularly troubling as Kelly and Lincoln’s family is Maori (other main characters are white). It also doesn’t help that Lincoln is portrayed negatively, as aggressive and controlling. However, Gideon’s tight-knit family with two loving lesbian moms is a bright spot.
Would have been truly stellar if not for the missed opportunities for positive representation. (Fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-925498-54-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Text
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Suitable for fans of nonmainstream romances with larger-than-life characters.
Two teens—one girl, one boy—defy gender norms to discover their own brand of love.
When they meet, laid-back Zee and self-professed “biggest personality on the planet” Art are both sure they’re straight despite others’ assumptions that they’re gay because of how they present themselves. It’s infatuation at first sight for Art, who is certain that fellow “mythical creature” Zee will fall for him. Amid tumultuous family circumstances—Zee meets her estranged father after her mother dies of cancer, while Art’s parents’ marriage falls apart—the duo explores their confusing attraction to each other and what it means for their senses of self. This exploration includes sex (masturbation, blow jobs, nights in a motel room, and relationship drama involving other characters). The book’s strength lies in its first-person narration, which alternates between Zee and Art in uber-short chapters full of all-caps, exclamation points, and explanatory pie charts. The ultimate affirmation that love needs no labels or boundaries comes far too late for a story about sexual fluidity; throughout most of the book, Zee and Art subscribe to strongly binary views of gender, sexuality, and gender expression. Art and all other primary characters are presumably white. Zee, jarringly for the daughter of an Iranian father and a very light-skinned white mother, is described as having a very dark complexion.
Suitable for fans of nonmainstream romances with larger-than-life characters. (Fiction. 16-18)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62779-852-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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