Schneider’s debut asks readers to consider how and where to draw the line between forgivable and inexcusable transgressions...
Blindsided by betrayal, wounded in heart and hand, Sloane escapes to Hawaii, where she finds healing, romance, and new complications.
During the school year, Sloane and her twin brother, Penn, live in Seattle with their lawyer dad and spend summers with their mom and stepdad, both surgeons, in their oceanfront home near Waikiki. A successful competitive swimmer who’s learned to manage her asthma, Sloane’s shattered when her best friend, Mick, confesses she’s pregnant by Sloane’s boyfriend, Tyler. When his efforts to explain fall short, Sloane breaks his nose and her hand. Off to Hawaii, she gets a warm welcome (with piles of presents) from her mother and a car to share with Penn. Soon they’re partying on the beach with old friends and new—especially Finn, son of a wealthy hotel magnate, who’s seriously hot and smitten with Sloane. Their romance blossoms. When not engaged in beach parties and retail therapy, Sloane teaches Finn’s traumatized little sister to swim and tries to ignore the texts and email from Mick and Tyler pleading for forgiveness; this is her summer, her mother tells her. When Sloane’s past catches up with her, she must face the betrayal head-on. What distinguishes this romance from a standard-issue beach read is its likable main character. One-quarter native Hawaiian and three-quarters white, Sloane and Penn are blond and beautiful, and they are surrounded by likewise beautiful, toned, bronzed teens.
Schneider’s debut asks readers to consider how and where to draw the line between forgivable and inexcusable transgressions in those we love. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2525-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
Several yards short of a touchdown.
A transgender boy starting over at a new school falls hard for a popular cheerleader with a reputation to protect in this debut.
On the first day of senior year, transgender boy Pony locks eyes with cisgender cheerleader Georgia. They both have pasts they want to leave behind. No one at Hillcrest High knows that Pony is transgender, and he intends to keep it that way. Georgia’s last boyfriend shook her trust in boys, and now she’s determined to forget him. As mutual attraction draws them together, Pony and Georgia must decide what they are willing to risk for a relationship. Pony’s best friend, Max, who is also transgender, disapproves of Pony’s choice to live stealth; this disagreement leads to serious conflict in their relationship. Meanwhile, Georgia and Pony behave as if Pony’s trans identity was a secret he was lying to her about rather than private information for him to share of his own volition. The characters only arrive at a hopeful resolution after Pony pays high physical and emotional prices. McSmith places repeated emphasis on the born-in-the-wrong-body narrative when the characters discuss trans identities. Whiteness is situated as the norm, and all main characters are white.
Several yards short of a touchdown. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: May 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-294317-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one.
Teens become astronauts in record time for an inaugural space mission.
After losing his family to “the greatest flood Rome has ever known,” skilled white Italian swimmer Leo Danieli would never have expected that in his darkest moment he would be drafted by the European Space Agency to attend the International Space Training Camp, where teens will train to terraform and colonize Jupiter’s moon Europa for human settlement. California native Naomi Ardalan, a second-generation Iranian-American, has also been chosen for her expertise in science and technology. During a period of violent climate change worldwide, Earth’s governments are desperate to draft teens for a space mission for which they have only a few weeks in which to prepare. Twenty-four teen finalists, many orphaned by cataclysmic natural disasters, have been chosen from all over the world to compete for this space colonization mission. Warnings come to Leo and Naomi that there is a more sinister aspect to this mission, especially after things go tragically awry with other candidates during the training. The relationship that develops between Naomi and Leo feels forced, as if their meeting necessitates speedy deployment of a romantic cliché. The use of predictable plot devices, along with the fundamentally ludicrous premise, undermines any believability that would make a reader invest in such an elaborate space journey.
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one. (Science fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-265894-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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