Fans of boy bands will be on this like tattoos on Harry Styles' chest.
It's been hard for Stella to concentrate on her life since her sister Cara was diagnosed with leukemia.
Cara is gaga for the Heartbreakers, a hot four-boy band, but Stella thinks they are all fluff and no talent. Nonetheless, to surprise Cara for her birthday, Stella and their brother Drew (they’re triplets) decide to drive overnight to attend the band's autograph signing. Upon arriving, bleary-eyed Stella hits a Starbucks, where a cute and sweetly flirty, blue-eyed boy strikes up a conversation. When Stella struggles to find money to pay, he plunks down $20 and leaves. Stella and Drew wait hours in line for Cara's autographs, but the band packs up right before they reach them—but not before Stella realizes that lead singer Oliver Perry is the boy from the coffee shop. One hotheaded encounter later, a relationship is born. Stella becomes conflicted about her feelings for Oliver; how can she justify thinking about him while her sister suffers? Novak creates a titillating tension between her leads; one moment, they're simpatico, the next, they're one cog tooth off. The predictable but pleasant romance offers touching moments as well as band high jinks featuring Jell-O and Silly String.
Fans of boy bands will be on this like tattoos on Harry Styles' chest. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4926-1256-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the well-meaning warmth, a wearying plod.
Can a 17-year-old with her first girlfriend prevent real-life folks from discovering her online fandoms?
Cass is proudly queer, happily fat, and extremely secretive about being a fan who role-plays on Discord. Back in middle school, she had what she calls a gaming addiction, playing “The Sims” so much her parents had to take the game away. Now, turning to her role-play friends to cope with her fighting parents, she worries that people will judge her for her fannishness and online life. To be fair, her grades are suffering. And sure, maybe she’s missed a college application deadline. Also, her mom has suddenly left Minneapolis and moved to Maine to be with a man she met online. But on the other hand, Cass is finally dating her amazingly cute longtime crush, Taylor. Pansexual Taylor is a gamer, a little bit punk, White like Cass, and so, so great—but she still can’t help comparing her to Rowan, Cass’ online best friend and role-playing ship partner. But Rowan doesn’t want to be a dirty little secret and doesn’t see why Cass can’t be honest about this part of her life. The inevitable train wreck of her lies looms on the horizon for months in an overlong morality play building to the climax that includes tidy resolutions to all the character arcs that are quite heartwarming but, in the case of Cass’ estranged mother, narratively unearned.
Despite the well-meaning warmth, a wearying plod. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-324332-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant romance hindered by some curious choices.
Opposites attract after tragedy strikes.
Autistic white teen David Drucker spends every lunch period eating alone. When Indian-American popular girl Kit Lowell joins him one day she’s just looking for a quiet place to sit. It’s been one month since Kit’s father, a white dentist, died in a terrible car accident, but Kit is still flailing. As the two teens get to know one another and eat lunch together each day, they find themselves bringing out their own best qualities. Slowly but surely, romance blooms. There’s a warmth and ease to their relationship that the author captures effortlessly. Each chapter alternates perspective between Kit and David, and each one is fully rendered. The supporting characters are less well served, particularly Kit’s first-generation-immigrant mother. There are two major complications in Kit’s story, both involving her workaholic mother, and the lack of development defuses some potential fireworks. The central relationship is so charming and engaging that readers will tolerate the adequate tertiary characters. Less tolerable is a late-in-the-game reveal about Dr. Lowell’s accident that shifts the novel’s tone to a down note that juxtaposes poorly with everything that came before. The author pulls out in the final few pages, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
A pleasant romance hindered by some curious choices. (Romance. 12-16)Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-53568-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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