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
Exactly what the title promises.
A grieving teen’s devotion to romance films might ruin her chances at actual romance.
Liz Buxbaum has always adored rom-coms, not least for helping her still feel close to her screenwriter mother, who died when she was little. Liz hopes that her senior year might turn into a real-life romantic fantasy, as an old crush has moved back to town, cuter and nicer than ever. Surely she can get Michael to ask her to prom. If only Wes, the annoying boy next door, would help her with her scheming! This charming, fluffy concoction manages to pack into one goofy plot every conceivable trope, from fake dating to the makeover to the big misunderstanding. Creative, quirky, daydreaming Liz is just shy of an annoying stereotype, saved by a dry wit and unresolved grief and anger. Wes makes for a delightful bad boy with a good heart, and supporting characters—including a sassy best friend, a perfect popular rival, even a (not really) evil stepmother—all get the opportunity to transcend their roles. The only villain here is Liz’s lovelorn imagination, provoking her into foolish lies that cause actual hurt feelings; but she is sufficiently self-aware to make amends just in time for the most important trope of all: a blissfully happy ending. All characters seem to be White by default.
Exactly what the title promises. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6762-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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