TIME OF OUR LIVES

When two very different teens meet on a college road trip, sparks begin to fly.

Exhausted by the needs of her family, Juniper Ramírez can’t wait for the freedom of college. When she sets off to tour colleges with her boyfriend, Matt, it feels like her future is beginning. Fitz Holton, terrified by his mother’s genetic predisposition to early-onset Alzheimer’s, long ago decided to attend a local college so he can care for her if and when she needs additional support. When Fitz’s mother forces him to go on a college tour with his brother, Lewis—who was adopted from India (Fitz was adopted from Arkansas)—it feels like torture. When Fitz and Juniper cross paths after an information session at Boston University, their feelings about their families change as they fall for one another and consider the possibility of a shared future. Their connection takes them both by surprise, creating a romance that simmers at a slow burn. Juniper’s character is well drawn, and her struggle with balancing her ambition with her familial responsibilities is both complex and authentic. Fitz, however, is less believable: His anger toward his brother feels forced and manufactured, and his bitterness about his brother’s decision to connect with his birth family and their home culture reinforces tropes used to deny adoptees access to their personal histories. Fitz is cued as white; Juniper is Mexican American.

A cleverly plotted teen romance with a problematic protagonist.