A satisfying romance that will please Sarah Dessen fans.
An embarrassing run-in with a soccer star starts off Maddie’s summer on the wrong foot.
Seventeen-year-old Maddie McPherson has gotten the nickname CalaMaddie since things tend to go wrong when she’s around. She hopes to change the odds this summer when her aunt gets her an internship at a Chicago marketing agency—and if all goes well, a good recommendation will help her get into her dream college. The internship consists of coffee runs and answering phones, until she’s unexpectedly assigned to a big project to improve the reputation of 19-year-old hard-partying Italian soccer star Gabe Fortunato. This doesn’t make her popular with the other interns, but Maddie’s determined to prove herself. She needs Gabe to open up so that she can create original, likable social media content, and of course once he does, she can’t help falling for him. But is he interested in her too, or is it all an act? With insecurities of never being good enough, both ordinary Maddie and famous Gabe feel realistic and engaging. When photos of Maddie and Gabe together make the rounds and trolls attack her appearance, the book presents an important indictment of women taking down other women. Mishaps abound and keep the pacing tight in this utterly charming tale. All main characters are presumably White.
A satisfying romance that will please Sarah Dessen fans. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64567-056-8
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
A thrilling, high-tech page-turner with deep roots.
A teen navigates different worlds: real and virtual, colonized and Indigenous.
In the near-future real world, Bugz’s family has clout in the community—her mom is their first modern-day woman chief, her father’s a highly admired man, and her older brother is handsome and accomplished. Socially awkward Bugz, by contrast, feels more successful in the virtual gaming world of the Floraverse, where she has amassed tremendous power. Yes, her ’Versona has a slimmed-down figure—but Bugz harnesses her passion for the natural world and her Anishinaabe heritage to build seemingly unbeatable defenses, especially her devoted, lovingly crafted Thunderbird and snake/panther Mishi-pizhiw. Cheered on by legions of fans, she battles against Clan:LESS, a group of angry, misogynistic male gamers. One of them, Feng, ends up leaving China under a cloud of government suspicion and moving to her reservation to live with his aunt, the new doctor; they are Muslim Uighurs who have their own history of forced reeducation and cultural erasure. Feng and Bugz experience mutual attraction—and mistrust—and their relationship in and out of the Floraverse develops hesitantly under a shadow of suspected betrayal. Kinew (Anishinaabe) has crafted a story that balances heart-pounding action scenes with textured family and community relationships, all seamlessly undergirded by storytelling that conveys an Indigenous community’s past—and the vibrant future that follows from young people’s active, creative engagement with their culture.
A thrilling, high-tech page-turner with deep roots. (glossary, resources) (Science fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6900-2
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Penguin Teen
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
Regardless, readers will likely be so swept up in the romance they can read past any flaws.
An ultimately compelling exploration of teenage growth and young love.
With her idolized sister Margot leaving for college, Lara Jean doesn’t feel ready for the coming changes: becoming more responsible for their younger sister, Kitty, helping their widowed father, or seeing Margot break up with Josh, the boy next door—whom Lara Jean secretly liked first. But there’s even greater upheaval to come, when Lara Jean’s five secret letters to the boys she’s loved are mailed to them by accident. Lara Jean runs when sweet, dependable Josh tries to talk to her about her letter. And when Peter Kavinsky gets his letter, it brings him back into Lara Jean’s life, all handsome, charming, layered and complicated. They start a fake relationship to help Lara Jean deal with Josh and Peter to get over his ex. But maybe Lara Jean and Peter will discover there’s something more between them as they learn about themselves and each other. It’s difficult to see this book as a love triangle—Josh is bland as oatmeal, and Peter is utterly charismatic. Meanwhile, readers may find that Lara Jean sometimes seems too naïve and rather young for 16—though in many ways, this makes her feel more realistic than many of the world-weary teens that populate the shelves.
Regardless, readers will likely be so swept up in the romance they can read past any flaws. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: April 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2670-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
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