Stymied from attending the Astlebury Music Festival by their parents, three British girls in Year 9—they call themselves Les Bambinos Dangereuses—decide to have their own. Surprisingly, they garner permission from the headmaster to host Blackwell Live. At first, this is relentlessly hip and snide as Ronnie, short for Veronica Ripperton, introduces her parents, her friends, her crushes, and her music. Fleur is a gorgeous boy magnet, with snogging (twirly tongues and all) usually leading to heartbreak. Claude, short for Claudette, is an angelic-looking overachiever with a penchant for getting the other girls into trouble. About midpoint when the characters have been introduced and the plans for the festival are rolling, the subplot of Ronnie’s bickering parents gets more focus and the aggravating slang lightens up to make the second half more enjoyable. A Rennison imitation, or in LBD terms, not quite as big a “fat sack of flatulent poo-flavored mess” as it starts out to be. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-399-24187-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection.
Broken people, complicated families, magic, and Faerie politics: Black’s back.
After the tumultuous ending to the last volume (marriage, exile, and the seeming collapse of all her plots), Jude finds herself in the human world, which lacks appeal despite a childhood spent longing to go back. The price of her upbringing becomes clear: A human raised in the multihued, multiformed, always capricious Faerie High Court by the man who killed her parents, trained for intrigue and combat, recruited to a spy organization, and ultimately the power behind the coup and the latest High King, Jude no longer understands how to exist happily in a world that isn’t full of magic and danger. A plea from her estranged twin sends her secretly back to Faerie, where things immediately come to a boil with Cardan (king, nemesis, love interest) and all the many political strands Jude has tugged on for the past two volumes. New readers will need to go back to The Cruel Prince (2018) to follow the complexities—political and personal side plots abound—but the legions of established fans will love every minute of this lushly described, tightly plotted trilogy closer. Jude might be traumatized and emotionally unhealthy, but she’s an antihero worth cheering on. There are few physical descriptions of humans and some queer representation.
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31042-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
A sexy thriller where the ultimate prize is finding and embracing the truth—even if it’s difficult to understand.
A young woman must unlearn everything she knows about her parents in order to find the truth.
River, the daughter of a Filipino father and a white mother, finds her world irrevocably changed when her mother goes missing and her father dies in a house fire during her senior year of high school. She’s left with an additional mystery after an anonymous person donates $2,000,000 to her GoFundMe fundraiser. Together with her best friend, Tawny, her ex, Noah, and her new love interest, Logan, all of whom are cued white, River dives into her parents’ pasts. However, as she investigates, she realizes that everyone has a secret—and no one can be trusted. In this fast-paced thriller, Harlow captures the complexities of human emotions from grief to love. Her characters are well developed, especially Logan, who has an ideal blend of depth and attractiveness. Tawny, who’s adopted, has experienced grief of her own. Together, the characters move the plot with increasing speed through jaw-dropping twists. Letters incorporated into the story present other points of view, bringing texture to the story and increasing readers’ uncertainty about whom to believe. Harlow skillfully weaves together a page-turning mystery that’s enhanced by River and Logan’s steamy and passionate relationship.
A sexy thriller where the ultimate prize is finding and embracing the truth—even if it’s difficult to understand. (Romantic thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593855942
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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