Mystery and magic create a thrilling and expansive world for bold characters.
Amid the glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age, 16-year-old Lola and 17-year-old Lisandro, expert scammers and siblings, confront fears and foes in award winner McLemore’s latest.
Lola and Lisandro’s Mamá and Papá died when they were young, leaving the pair with only their stories to guide them. At 13 and 14, respectively, they learned the hard way that they needed to con others or be conned. Thus was born their act: Lola pretends to haunt the rich and famous so that Lisandro can enter as a sympathetic medium, prepared to banish the ghost. Yet nothing prepares them to see their parents’ stories come to life when they target media mogul Bixby Fairfax and his mistress, the starlet Blythe Bell. They encounter the couple at The Coterie, their extravagant hilltop mansion on a country estate, reminiscent of William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon castle. There, the siblings learn that the roots of deception and anger grow deep. The Mexican siblings navigate a largely white world. Some of the layered fables confuse the plot, but the book pays a deep metafictive attention to mythologies that center women and queer characters. Each lead’s development is beautifully paced and thoughtfully explored as they narrate their own motivations and experiences with love interests, and the integration of a trans character and the celebration of the fullness of their being is bright and inspires hope.
Mystery and magic create a thrilling and expansive world for bold characters. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250370587
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
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
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans.
Romantic complications between a trained killer and one of her captors drive this sequel to Watch Me (2025).
Appealing to readers who prefer their romantic dramas to be light on action and heavy on long passages of banter, bitter sibling arguments, and tortured reflections, Mafi continues the tale of Rosabelle Wolff, the flaxen-haired assassin from the dystopic Reestablishment, and magnetic, “impossibly stunning” James Anderson, her nemesis-turned-lover who’s still trying to take down the regime. Now desperate to accomplish several secret missions, Rosa easily escapes from one of The New Republic’s prisons, where she was left in the series opener, and, dressed in “a little kid’s cat onesie,” eludes all pursuers except for James, who can seemingly find her at will. Enigmatic Rosa responds unpredictably to many human contacts—including with violence, temporary death (one of her abilities), or a sudden panic attack. Along with the central pair of rivals and lovers, James’ older brother, Aaron, shares the narration. Bestseller Mafi tucks in several subplots, including, notably, a cameo from Juliette Ferrars, the protagonist of the original Shatter Me series, who’s undergoing a scarily difficult pregnancy. Amid the slowly simmering rising action, the author delivers a revelation and a twist that set up a potential series climax. Some ethnic diversity is present in the supporting cast.
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans. (Dystopian. 14-adult)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780063419056
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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