It’s hard to get invested in a love story when one of the partners is an unknowable black hole
Two teens are set on a collision course with sexy results.
Nicolette Holland is on the run. She’s changed her name and her hair and fully intends to disappear as fast as possible. Jack Manx, son of a mob big shot, is blackmailed into finding Nicolette and making sure no one else does. The circumstances revolving around Nicolette’s importance are a bit blurry: Jack is told she murdered a girl connected to a powerful crime boss, but Nicolette doesn’t act like a murderer, and the police aren’t on her tail. The story unfolds with alternating chapters switching between Jack’s and Nicolette’s present-tense accounts, but the different perspectives offer little to the narrative. There are no tense cat-and-mouse sequences here; Jack just finds his mark with little trouble. When the pair cross paths there’s a sexual attraction that promises to give emotional texture to the mob drama, but each character is so guarded that little genuine heat arises. Jack and Nicolette are manic in their moods, going from loving to hating and back to loving each other, sometimes within the span of one or two pages. Neither character is particularly engaging: Jack is a stereotypical bad boy with a heart of gold, and the mysterious nature of Nicolette’s past crime keeps her at arm’s length.
It’s hard to get invested in a love story when one of the partners is an unknowable black hole . (Thriller. 14-16)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4393-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
A solid, warmhearted Sapphic romance showing how joy emerges when the bullies aren’t in charge.
Sixteen-year-old Ellie Young, bullied in middle school for her then-undiagnosed autism, believes she’s solved her social life challenges.
Following her rules (like “Rule #4: Always keep the topic of the conversation on the other person”)—even when that means hiding her true self, as her therapist points out—at least leads to people treating her “like a human being.” So it’s unfair when her boyfriend, Daniel Solomon, dumps her, drunkenly telling everyone she lacks personality. He’d invited her to attend beach volleyball camp, and even though she doesn’t enjoy kissing him and is strangely unbothered about the breakup, she plans to use the camp to make him want to get her back—proving that he was wrong about her being “cute but boring.” Ellie and her social circle at school are cued white; her group of new camp friends comprise a mix of religions, ethnicities, races, sexualities, and gender expressions. Also unlike school, at camp “the people who normally hide in the shadows to protect themselves get to live a little without constantly being judged.” The biggest complication is Sierra Levine, the white-presenting daughter of a beach volleyball legend. Ellie can’t understand why she’s so drawn to Sierra—until she finally gets it, complicating everything. Although the secondary characters are minimally developed, the pacing is nice and light. Schae’s pleasant debut offers a humane, compassionate view of teens supporting each other in pain and joy.
A solid, warmhearted Sapphic romance showing how joy emerges when the bullies aren’t in charge. (Romance. 14-16)Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9798217033263
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
Smoothly written and packed with (perhaps too many) challenging issues, Hoyle’s debut may feel a bit glib and predictable to...
A teenager with epilepsy who has recently lost her father to cancer overcomes the depression induced by grief and illness as she acclimates to attending public school for the first time in several years and finds a boyfriend.
Home-schooled and reluctant to engage with strangers, Emilie spends her spare time reading, cuddling with her therapy dog, Hitch, and playing board games with Cindy, her 8-year-old neighbor. Forced to begin classes at the local high school, Emilie is determined to remain aloof. A smart, creative girl named Ayla and a hot (and very nice) boy named Chatham befriend her, making it hard to stay distant and self-contained. Conflicts with her mother, who is just beginning to date, and concern about the potential embarrassment of having a seizure at school further complicate Emilie’s life. Miserable and self-absorbed, Emilie is exceedingly articulate. Indeed, her first-person narration sometimes sounds older than her years, particularly when describing her crush. Extended metaphors abound, most involving water. That’s logical given the Outer Banks setting and Emilie’s fears, but they slow the flow of the plot and contribute to the not entirely believable tone. Emilie seems to be white, and so does her world, aside from the occasional student of color.
Smoothly written and packed with (perhaps too many) challenging issues, Hoyle’s debut may feel a bit glib and predictable to some readers; others will swoon over the dreamy Chatham and root for Emilie to come out of her shell. (Romance. 14-16)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-310-75851-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Blink
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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