Uneven pacing disappoints, but the emotional journey is satisfying.
Home-schooled 17-year-old Thistle Tate is a celebrated YA author—but she’s wracked with guilt over knowing that she’s a fraud.
Her father, Theo, wrote the Lemonade Skies series himself and pretended to be Thistle in order to get a publishing deal. Meanwhile, Thistle goes on book tours, talks to fans, and even deceives her agent and editor. Her next-door neighbor and best friend, Liam Caruso, is the only one to whom she’s told her secret. She’s been crushing on Liam for years, but her feelings get complicated when she connects with 17-year-old Oliver Flynn, who comes to a book signing on behalf of his younger sister, a superfan who’s sick with Crohn’s disease. The tension ramps up and the lies spiral after her father breaks both his arms falling off a ladder right before the final manuscript is due, and Thistle must figure out how to finish the trilogy herself. Woven throughout are excerpts from the Lemonade Skies series—a fantasy about a girl caught in a love triangle who discovers a portal to the afterworld—which provide an interesting balance as Thistle grapples with budding romance and her unresolved grief over her mother, who died when Thistle was 3. Detweiler (Transcendent, 2016, etc.) delivers an intriguing tale about honesty and family, though the ending drags. All main characters are white.
Uneven pacing disappoints, but the emotional journey is satisfying. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: July 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4239-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
A nonstop thrill ride through an eerily claustrophobic setting.
A secret party in the Paris catacombs sounds like the experience of a lifetime—until you’re lost in the tunnels of the dead.
Ruby has been looking forward to her French class trip to Paris for ages; she’s especially excited to explore locations for her YouTube channel, “Ruby’s Hidden Gems.” When her adventurous bestie, Val, sneaks off to meet up with a handsome stranger, Ruby follows, accompanied by former BFF Selena and class valedictorian Olivia. The four girls trustingly follow the mysterious Julien into the Paris catacombs for an illegal cataphile party, but they all end up lost. Aboveground, Ruby’s other best friend (and crush) Sean and Selena’s girlfriend, Aliyah, help the police search for the missing teens. Underground, Ruby, Val, Selena, and Olivia confront the fractures in their friendships and struggle to find their way out. But wait—did some of the bones just come to life? From teen drama to suffocating nightmares, this book takes readers through twists and turns in the maze of tunnels beneath Paris. Urban’s prose is absorbing, leading readers through frightening scenes at a breakneck pace. Ruby’s narration of her harrowing journey is fast-paced and exciting. Sean’s chapters, which focus on his attempts to assist with the rescue, unfortunately distract from the far more compelling story playing out underground. The lead characters are white; Selena reads Latine, and Aliyah is cued Black.
A nonstop thrill ride through an eerily claustrophobic setting. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593625088
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage.
Adrian, the youngest of the Montague siblings, sails into tumultuous waters in search of answers about himself, the sudden death of his mother, and her mysterious, cracked spyglass.
On the summer solstice less than a year ago, Caroline Montague fell off a cliff in Aberdeen into the sea. When the Scottish hostel where she was staying sends a box of her left-behind belongings to London, Adrian—an anxious, White nobleman on the cusp of joining Parliament—discovers one of his mother’s most treasured possessions, an antique spyglass. She acquired it when she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck many years earlier. His mother always carried that spyglass with her, but on the day of her death, she had left it behind in her room. Although he never knew its full significance, Adrian is haunted by new questions and is certain the spyglass will lead him to the truth. Once again, Lee crafts an absorbing adventure with dangerous stakes, dynamic character growth, sharp social and political commentary, and a storm of emotion. Inseparable from his external search for answers about his mother, Adrian seeks a solution for himself, an end to his struggle with mental illness—a journey handled with hopeful, gentle honesty that validates the experiences of both good and bad days. Characters from the first two books play significant secondary roles, and the resolution ties up their loose ends. Humorous antics provide a well-measured balance with the heavier themes.
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-291601-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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