It adds up to fairly typical adolescent angst with a bit of insight on top. (Romance. 12-16)
Harper, the official yearbook photographer, has a boyfriend but secretly crushes on Brody, the drop-dead-handsome football star. What happens when a silly student poll teams them up as the “Perfect Couple That Never Was”?
True, her romance with Kennedy hasn’t been going well. Kennedy picks fights with her just before they have dates, and he pushes her around in his job as yearbook editor. Brody isn’t single either, and he can’t seem to keep his hands off his girlfriend in public. But Harper has a job to do, and one of her assignments is to photograph the “Superlatives,” couples chosen by the students in secret ballots. And even though Brody has a girlfriend, he comes on to her—and she responds. When she has a furious fight with a jealous Kennedy in front of a roomful of their friends, things really go awry. Can she have a real relationship with Brody after all—or does he only care about her looks, now that she’s ditched her glasses and started wearing attractive clothes? Meanwhile, her parents are in the middle of a nasty divorce, and her grandfather behaves like a hermit. Echols focuses on Harper’s inner turmoil as she pens a better-than-average high school romance caper. She has fun highlighting many of Harper’s mistakes, but she also gives secondary characters unexpected complexity.
It adds up to fairly typical adolescent angst with a bit of insight on top. (Romance. 12-16)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7449-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
A lushly written story with an intriguing heart.
After praying to a Fate for help, Evangeline discovers the dangerous world of magic.
When her father passes away, Evangeline is left with her cold stepmother and kind but distant stepsister, Marisol. Despite inheriting a steady trust in magic, belief in her late mother’s homeland of the mystical North (where fantastical creatures live), and philosophy of hope for the future, her dreams are dashed when Luc, her love, pledges to marry Marisol instead. Evangeline desperately prays to the Prince of Hearts, a dangerous and fickle Fate famed for his heart that is waiting to be revived by his one true love—and his potentially lethal kisses. The bargain they strike sends her on a dark and magical journey throughout the land. The writing style fluctuates from clever and original to overly verbose and often confusing in its jumble of senses. While the pervasive magic and concept of the Fates as a religious system add interest, other fantasy elements are haphazardly incorporated without enough time devoted to building a cohesive world. However, the themes of love, the power of story, family influence, and holding onto belief are well rounded and add depth. The plot contains welcome surprises, and the large cast piques curiosity; readers will wish more time was spent getting to know them. Evangeline has rose-gold hair and, like other main characters, reads as White; there is diversity among the fantasy races in this world.
A lushly written story with an intriguing heart. (map) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26839-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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