Another solid outing from Williams.
A girl who’s recently moved to a small Florida town knows the women in her family gain control of supernatural Gifts on their 15th birthdays, but the nature of her own gift might not make Evie happy.
At first, Evie Messenger is sure she has no Gift at all. When a medium fails to see what her Gift might be, the white teen doesn’t press the issue because she’s happy to be an “oddball,” a Messenger woman with no Gift. But that night, she meets a pale, black-haired girl named Tommie, who keeps showing up and has some sort of undefined problem. It turns out that Evie indeed does have a Gift, a terrifying one: she can directly communicate with the dead. Tommie, of course, has died, but she doesn’t know it. Complicating matters is the fact that Tommie was the daughter of JimDaddy, Evie’s new stepfather, and the girlfriend of Buddy, Evie’s new boyfriend. Evie not only must deal with this tangled web, but also come to terms with her Gift and learn how to use it properly so that she can help the dead souls that come to her. Williams creates a recognizable world with Evie and her working-class, white family, whose colloquial speech (“Now lookit”) provides extra dimension. Even though her Gift may be supernatural, Evie herself comes across as a well-rounded, likable character.
Another solid outing from Williams. (Paranormal fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5776-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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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