Breathlessly sweet.
It’s the night of FabCon prom.
With her fabulous best friend, Jayla, by her side, 16-year-old Jubilee tries her best to let go and give in to new experiences, per some encouragement from basically every adult in her life. Of course, that proves difficult thanks to her upcoming big audition for a summer program at the Carnegie Conservatory, where her young career as a cellist might blossom further. For 17-year-old anxiety-ridden Ridley, the annual comic convention means more torturous time as a brand ambassador for The Geekery, his emotionally abusive father’s infamous comic store chain known for putting indie shops out of business. Fate intervenes when the two teens meet, and an awkwardly endearing first night together leads to something more complicated. Soon Ridley’s forced into spying on Jubilee’s comic artist stepmom by his father, who wants to buy out his enemy’s shop. Ridley is faced with a moral dilemma: Should he tell Jubilee the truth, and will their love for each other withstand their parents’ mutual hatred? The story alternates between each teen’s endearing narration. Dugan (Hot Dog Girl, 2019, etc.) infuses her characters with a warm sense of depth and compassion, particularly the socially self-conscious Ridley, a boy plagued with immense anxiety and frequent suicidal thoughts. Featuring a racially diverse cast of mainly queer characters, including the two white protagonists, this one’s a winning choice.
Breathlessly sweet. (resources) (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-51628-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans.
Romantic complications between a trained killer and one of her captors drive this sequel to Watch Me (2025).
Appealing to readers who prefer their romantic dramas to be light on action and heavy on long passages of banter, bitter sibling arguments, and tortured reflections, Mafi continues the tale of Rosabelle Wolff, the flaxen-haired assassin from the dystopic Reestablishment, and magnetic, “impossibly stunning” James Anderson, her nemesis-turned-lover who’s still trying to take down the regime. Now desperate to accomplish several secret missions, Rosa easily escapes from one of The New Republic’s prisons, where she was left in the series opener, and, dressed in “a little kid’s cat onesie,” eludes all pursuers except for James, who can seemingly find her at will. Enigmatic Rosa responds unpredictably to many human contacts—including with violence, temporary death (one of her abilities), or a sudden panic attack. Along with the central pair of rivals and lovers, James’ older brother, Aaron, shares the narration. Bestseller Mafi tucks in several subplots, including, notably, a cameo from Juliette Ferrars, the protagonist of the original Shatter Me series, who’s undergoing a scarily difficult pregnancy. Amid the slowly simmering rising action, the author delivers a revelation and a twist that set up a potential series climax. Some ethnic diversity is present in the supporting cast.
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans. (Dystopian. 14-adult)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780063419056
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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