A satisfying if predictable crowd pleaser.
A European summer flirtation blossoms into something more in this romance set in Italy and Pennsylvania.
While on a high school graduation trip to Florence, aspiring actress Lucy meets Jesse, a wandering minstrel of a boy originally from New Jersey who busks for room and board. During the last days of her vacation, they share a hotel room, and tensions arise when Lucy chooses to spend time with Jesse over her traveling companion, Charlene. When it’s time for Lucy to go home, she and Jesse reluctantly part, and Lucy is convinced she will never see Jesse again. Fast-forward to her freshman year at a Philadelphia college. Lucy lands a lead role in Rent, even though her controlling father has forbidden her to keep acting. She has a gorgeous new boyfriend named Shane but can’t stop thinking about Jesse. When Jesse shows up unexpectedly on campus, Lucy must decide between rebelling against her father and following her dreams with Jesse or sticking with her business major and playing it safe with Shane. This novel is ideal fodder for romance traditionalists, checking off every genre trope with the regularity of a metronome in solid if unremarkable prose. And Lindner does a good job of describing how uncomfortable travel can become when friends no longer get along. But readers looking for a more juicily written romance travelogue that teases and surprises at every turn may prefer Gayle Forman’s Just One Day (2013) and Just One Year (2013).
A satisfying if predictable crowd pleaser. (Fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-40069-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Poppy/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story.
Is an exuberant extended family the cure for a breakup? Sophie is about to find out.
When Sophie unexpectedly breaks up with her boyfriend, she isn’t thrilled about spending the holidays at her grandparents’ house instead of with him. And when her grandmother forms a plan to distract Sophie from her broken heart—10 blind dates, each set up by different family members—she’s even less thrilled. Everyone gets involved with the matchmaking, even forming a betting pool on the success of each date. But will Sophie really find someone to fill the space left by her ex? Will her ex get wind of Sophie’s dating spree via social media and want them to get back together? Is that what she even wants anymore? This is a fun story of finding love, getting to know yourself, and getting to know your family. The pace is quick and light, though the characters are fairly shallow and occasionally feel interchangeable, especially with so many names involved. A Christmas tale, the plot is a fast-paced series of dinners, parties, and games, relayed in both narrative form and via texts, though the humor occasionally feels stiff and overwrought. The ending is satisfying, though largely unsurprising. Most characters default to white as members of Sophie’s Italian American extended family, although one of her cousins has a Filipina mother. One uncle is gay.
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-02749-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
Bewitching.
A surly shopgirl, a kindly boy, and a girl who’s struggling with a curse forge an unlikely alliance.
After the death of her Da, 17-year-old Willow Stokes manages their family business, Edward Stokes’s Cabinet of Magical Curiosities, a store with precarious finances that sells purportedly magical items. When Brianna Hargrave arrives in Willow’s small village seeking a grimoire, the two, joined by Willow’s gentlehearted best friend (and possible love interest), Finlay Barrow, find themselves on a whirlwind adventure to save Willow’s shop and break Bri’s curse. Willow has a tough exterior, preferring to keep her feelings internalized, something that’s becoming increasingly difficult as she wrestles with her newfound feelings for Finlay. Bri, on the other hand, has a gentle demeanor, but she grapples with self-imposed isolation—if she touches anyone, she’ll imbue them with magic. Rutherford’s sweetly wrought fantasy is bespelling in itself, combining magic, witches, an enchanted dragon egg, a heist, and a swoonworthy friends-to-lovers romance. From a visit to a grimoire library to a tempestuous journey on the high seas, fantasy fans will find much to enjoy here, from the popular, recognizable tropes to the themes of found family and working through grief, all presented with a dash of wish fulfillment. Willow, Brianna, and Finlay are white, and there’s some racial diversity among the supporting characters.
Bewitching. (Fantasy. 13-17)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781250359889
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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