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: June 2, 2026
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 heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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