Fans of friends-to-more and second-chance rom-coms will find much to enjoy.
After reuniting to help cats in need, estranged best friends find love in this debut.
Luciana “Lucy” Melrose loved Jake Moody when they met at 11. She loved him when he left Somerset at 14 for his big break, with a sweet kiss and the promise to always be there for her. Now, four years later, she doesn’t want to love him—after all, he ghosted her and broke her heart. But the Tiny Tiger, her mom’s cat cafe, is in trouble: They don’t have enough customers, and there are so many cats who need adoption. Lucy’s old friend, now a member of the hit boy band the Usual Suspects, might be the answer. Lucy sends Jake an email, hoping for fundraising help, which turns into an in-person visit and a plan for his band to perform a livestreamed show to help the cafe. The chapters begin with epigraphs of song lyrics, interviews, and articles that hint at what’s coming. Balancing the right amount of swooniness and flirtation, Alexandrea sprinkles in pop-culture references and classic romance tropes. The relationship between the white-presenting leads is tame, with a will-they, won’t-they tension steadily building through embraces and near-kisses. Through the first-person narrative, readers watch as Lucy grows, coming to terms with her past both with and without Jake, and navigates the changes and uncertainty that teens often feel as they go from the teen years to early adulthood.
Fans of friends-to-more and second-chance rom-coms will find much to enjoy. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9780310182399
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Blink
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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 worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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