THE UNDOING OF THISTLE TATE

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.