An emotion-filled, magic-tinged romance for dreamy types.
Two high schoolers meet in the dreamworld.
Seventeen-year-old Aria Lendell has always been a hopeless romantic and inveterate daydreamer. But ever since something terrible happened to her identical twin, Cady, her imagination has lost its spark. Aria suddenly starts having lucid dreams at midnight; the fantastical settings offer a reprieve from reality. She shares the dreamworld with Strat Madigan, who attends St. Swithun’s, a boys’ prep school in nearby Sacramento. The white-presenting pair’s encounters at midnight, in daydreams, and in real life lead to the return of memories, complicating things even more. Aria and Strat realize they must have gotten memory erasures from Aracen Exradere. While this elective surgery is common for adults, it’s permitted for minors only in exceptional circumstances. Why and how did Aria and Strat erase each other—especially when their memories are the stuff of fairy tales? And why is the normally surefire ArEx procedure failing? As they piece together the puzzle, they confront the old and present versions of themselves. Using vividly descriptive prose, Bourne explores relationships, particularly the gaps between expectation and reality. Both leads have frequently capitulated to what others needed them to be at the expense of their real selves. Now that they have a second chance at love, they learn to embrace truth in all its messiness and manage relationships new and old, romantic and familial. The plot unravels slowly, with allusions and teases, but the story maintains a fast pace.
An emotion-filled, magic-tinged romance for dreamy types. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: June 30, 2026
ISBN: 9798217225552
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty.
In this retelling of a classic, a drama student’s obsession with beauty leads her down a dark—and possibly deadly—path.
Eighteen-year-old Penny Paxton is beginning her first year at Dorian Drama Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she hopes to follow in her starlet mother’s footsteps—and earn the love that her mother has never seemed to offer. At Dorian, Penny is mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company legend Orlagh Camran, who makes her the compelling offer of a portrait by the Masked Painter, a mysterious artist with the ability to gift his subjects everlasting youth and beauty. But shortly after Penny’s portrait is complete, several of the Masked Painter’s subjects are found murdered. Fearing that she’s made a terrible mistake and may become the next victim, Penny, who’s gay, begins to investigate the murders with the help of an unlikely ally. As she attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the Masked Painter and the murders, she’s forced to reckon with her own toxic obsession with beauty. This chilling, atmospheric novel, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, is entertaining and full of twists, though some of the reveals feel contrived and some questions are left unanswered. The plot unravels at a leisurely pace but eventually builds to an action-packed (if somewhat convoluted) conclusion. Most characters are cued white.
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty. (content note, author’s note, bonus scene) (Fantasy thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250346797
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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