A fast-paced and unpredictable mafia page-turner with an enemies-to-lovers duo hot on the case.
A high schooler joins forces with her ex-crush-turned-enemy to avenge her family.
Behind all the glitz, glamour, and designer clothes of the wealthy elite of Scarsdale, New York, lie betrayals and deadly secrets that rising senior Tasha Nicastro has been shielded from—until the night her father and sister are brutally murdered during a party at their mansion. She’s shocked to be made the new boss of the Nicastro Mafia and to learn that since childhood she’s been groomed for the role. Tasha must decide if she has what it takes to run the state’s most powerful crime family—and track down the traitorous mob boss who killed her loved ones. Leo Danesi has avoided his mob ties for as long as he can, but he’s finally forced to reckon with his family’s past and future, as well as his feelings for Tasha, when his mom accepts a surprising invitation and he ends up at the Nicastros’ party. At times, the weak and unclear motivations behind the complicated decisions made by some of the characters, who are largely cued Italian American, distracts from the action-packed drama. But the story, told in Tasha’s and Leo’s alternating first-person perspectives, brings the characters to life through distinct voices that together paint a picture of a violent and sinister underworld of organized crime.
A fast-paced and unpredictable mafia page-turner with an enemies-to-lovers duo hot on the case. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780316574150
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 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
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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