This poignant love story would have been more effective with two leads closer in age.
A mysterious young woman connects with a teenage musician with a past in this YA crossover novel.
In the summer of 1996, 18-year-old Justyce wakes up in a Cleveland hospital bed after a disastrous motorcycle ride with nothing but a stolen ID and a host of secrets to her name. After discovering she has nowhere to go, kind nurse Nick takes Justyce to his home with his wife, Ashley, so the young woman can fully and safely recuperate. Soon after, Justyce connects with 16-year-old Dylan Campbell, Nick and Ashley’s sometime house guest with his own tragic history: He was kidnapped at birth by a woman who pushed him into a music career. She eventually committed suicide after Dylan reconnected with his biological family through his budding rock career. Initially bonding over their favorite music, Dylan and Justyce quickly grow close both physically and emotionally. Though Justyce develops a solid support system in Nick and Ashley, plus Dylan and his family of famous musicians, she strays toward the negative influence of her pill-popping co-workers at a local diner. She hesitates to reveal her true identity and the reasons she left her Nashville home. But when Dylan’s scheming ex-girlfriend Margo digs up information about her while on a family vacation in Tennessee, Justyce must decide what she wants from life once and for all. This novel is the third volume in Adams’ generational fiction series about Dylan’s rock roots and the first YA crossover. The story works well as a stand-alone, with necessary information revealed in manageable pieces, and the ultimate resolutions of Justyce’s and Dylan’s many conflicts are both realistic and satisfying. But the main relationship involving a legal adult and a boy who’s recently turned 16 (despite the fact that Dylan doesn’t really sound like a teenager) is troubling. If Dylan were a year older or Justyce a year younger, their romance would have been just as sweet.
This poignant love story would have been more effective with two leads closer in age.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64716-104-0
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A delightfully autumnal small-town romance buoyed by strong characterization.
Ellis Mitchell has her whole life planned out.
Heading into senior year, Ellis plans to study hard and crush it at the journalism internship her media executive dad got her, paving the way for her acceptance to Columbia University. But then Ellis’ parents announce they’re separating—and that Ellis and her mom will be heading to Bramble Falls to stay with her aunt and cousin. Furious that her careful plans have been upended, Ellis struggles to settle into the small, charming Connecticut town even as everyone around her gears up for the annual Falling Leaves Festival. Ellis runs into Cooper Barnett—her long-ago summer friend from visits to Aunt Naomi and cousin Sloane—who’s grown up to be very handsome. But Cooper isn’t pleased to see Ellis; he’s cold and curt, and she has no idea why. Wilson’s YA debut is chock-full of charm. Readers will swoon at Cooper’s and Ellis’ developing feelings following their frosty reunion and sympathize with Ellis’ difficulties even as Bramble Falls grows on her. She must choose between small-town community ties and big-city ambitions—between what her dad wants for her and what she really wants. Ellis’ relationships with her mom, aunt, and cousin are lovely and aspirational. The depiction of Bramble Falls is evocative, and the book contains enough seasonal delights to satisfy even the most devoted pumpkin spice latte lover. Main characters are cued white.
A delightfully autumnal small-town romance buoyed by strong characterization. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781665975209
Page Count: 352
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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