Opposites attract in this engrossing romance.
Two teens puzzle out their strange circumstances when they appear to be the only two people left on Earth.
Seventeen-year-old Hannah Ashton is a serious ballet dancer on the brink of an audition that will launch her professional career when she wakes up to discover the world basically unchanged—except that she is totally alone in her home city of Houston. After five days of anxious solitude, she is filled with relief when she encounters Leo Sterling, a cute fellow senior she barely knows from school, at a music store next to her best friend’s family’s bookstore. Leo, a free-spirited musician who plays in a band known for their ’80s hair metal covers, has known Hannah from afar only as “Ballet Chick,” but once they meet, they are immediately drawn to one another. Alternating chapters in introspective first-person narration juxtapose their respective thoughts. As events unfold, readers get to know their drastically different ways of coping—which are in overdrive as they try to navigate environmental changes in the strange, lonely world they now inhabit. Romance fans will thrill to the slow smolder of their drawn-out attraction, which twists and turns its way through psychological drama that, while unsubtle, is offset by the effective mystery of their isolated situation. Hannah and Leo are White.
Opposites attract in this engrossing romance. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-71263-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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