Emotional page-turner
The one person who completely understands what Brooke is going through is the one person she’s not supposed to talk to.
After her brother, Jason, is convicted of murdering his best friend, Cal, life has stopped for Brooke and her family. Ostracized throughout their small Texas town, the only person she socializes with is newcomer Maggie, a half-Korean, half-white beauty vlogging teen. But Brooke doesn’t tell Maggie the cause of her mother’s hypervigilance, her father’s retreat into work, or her sister’s reticence. Brooke too, has let Jason’s conviction imprison her, derailing her dream of ice skating professionally. When she sees Heath, Cal’s younger brother, stranded on the side of the road, she gives him a ride into town and chances a connection with someone she knows is just as, if not more, broken. Through a mix of emotions, Brooke and Heath continue to meet in secret and slowly develop a friendship that threatens to become more even though they both know it cannot be. And when Brooke learns that there may be more to Cal’s murder than they all know, she can’t let this knowledge go even though it has the potential to cause even more pain to their families and shatter Brooke and Heath’s fragile understanding. Johnson (The First to Know, 2017, etc.) spins a tale of broken people and stirring complexity. With the exception of Maggie, characters are white.
Emotional page-turner . (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-335-54155-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
Well, most people are probably reading these books for Warner anyway.
Fighting an oppressive regime is an afterthought in this conclusion to Mafi’s romantic trilogy.
Unravel Me (2013) left the resistance thoroughly trounced. Juliette’s barely escaped death at the hands of Warner’s father, and she’s rescued and hidden by Warner on the base. In a refrain familiar to the series’ readers, Juliette again vows to fight back, for real this time, and to destroy the Reestablishment. But first, she must romance Warner and find out what’s become of her Omega Point friends. Romancing Warner is easy: Warner’s early, frequent, lengthy monologues explain how Juliette misinterpreted nearly every villainous thing Warner has ever done. It’s even easier after Juliette reunites with the Omega Point survivors, finds Adam and gets a taste of his new, jerk personality. Broad strokes destroy any complexity, mystery or tension in the love triangle. Many of the most interesting and difficult moments, such as a conversation between Adam and Warner about their parentage, are glossed over in favor of the repetitive sharing of emotions. A high page count gives the novel physical if not psychological weight and includes such padding as Juliette’s lengthy musings on a bar of soap. After all this, the end is all too easy, for characters anyway.
Well, most people are probably reading these books for Warner anyway. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-208557-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Fluffy and fun fodder for romance fans.
High school seniors Easton and Harper strike a mutually beneficial agreement: His senior prank shenanigans stay under wraps, and she gets a date to prom.
It’s a dare gone wrong for hockey hotshot Easton: Ask his longtime crush, Maddie, to prom and get a “yes” or steal the rival high school’s mascot costume. After Maddie turns him down, Harper catches Easton wearing the rhino getup and making a run for it, and she offers him a deal: She’ll keep his secret and help him complete the prank if he agrees to take her to prom. She volunteered on the prom committee and bought her dream dress—all she needs now is a date. Neither of them expected feelings between them to grow or how difficult it would be to express them. Harper and Easton, who are cued white, are likable characters with good chemistry, and their tension-filled scenes lead to a satisfying, sweetly romantic ending. Though there are hints about pressures and stresses in their home lives, the lack of character development leaves these topics underexplored. Easton’s hockey career plays a small role; there are a few practices and discussions of his college scholarship, but readers expecting more sports content may be disappointed. Some of the language and phrasing Ney uses in her YA debut feels outdated or as if it’s trying so hard to sound like a teenager’s voice that it pulls readers out of the story.
Fluffy and fun fodder for romance fans. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9798217117390
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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