A graceful weaving of first love and the quiet strength found in growing beyond our missteps.
A teen’s world turns upside down when her father is accused of fraud.
Prior to the investigation into her lawyer father, Indy Blair began a normal junior year of high school with loving parents and a tight-knit group of friends—Ava, Caroline, and Beau. Indy is especially close to Beau, the boy with the crooked smile that causes her heart to flutter. She performs well in school and works at a tutoring center. But the accusations against her father strain her home life, especially when Indy begins to doubt his innocence. Her grades slip; she dyes a strip of her brown hair black, quits her job, starts hanging out with a rebellious skater boy, and makes poor decisions that drive her friends away. Just as life feels completely overwhelming, Indy and Beau accidentally get locked in a school bathroom, forcing them to confront past mistakes—and their deeper feelings for each other. Moving back and forth in time, the novel unfolds through “Then” chapters, chronicling the months before Indy’s father’s investigation, and “Now” chapters, revealing the consequences in the present. The split timeline mirrors Indy’s own fractured identity, which is shaped by the events surrounding her father. The deepening connection between Indy and Beau, which follows classic romance novel beats, has charm. Most of the leads are white, and Ava is Asian American.
A graceful weaving of first love and the quiet strength found in growing beyond our missteps. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9780593897720
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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