Unsurprising and overlong.
Romance blossoms across class lines.
Even though he didn’t commit the crime he was accused of, Drix—short for Hendrix—has spent 10 months (confusingly and frequently called a year) in a special program to end the school-to-prison pipeline, started by the governor as part of his bid for the U.S. Senate. Elle, full name Ellison, is the governor’s daughter, expected by her ultracontrolling parents to be a perfect blue-eyed blonde political accessory. After a meet-cute with looming menace, the two white teens are drawn to each other. Drix knows Elle deserves the best, aka better than him (a confusing mirror of her parents’ attitude), and dating her could destroy his second chance. Elle doesn’t think so, and throughout the overstuffed, repetitious narrative, she works to change Drix’s mind and prove to her parents she is committed to her envisioned future as a coder. Their romance is put to the test when Drix discovers who truly committed the crime he did the time for and Elle tries to intercede. Although the perils of the school-to-prison pipeline and life in politics are constantly told, they are rarely shown, causing little emotional impact. Further undercutting the romance is Elle’s petulant naiveté, which jars against Drix’s didactic approach.
Unsurprising and overlong. (Romance. 14-16)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-373-21237-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
Mafiosa Rosa is rarely likable, but this tough survivor takes control of her own life, determined not to be controlled,...
A shape-shifting Mafia capo insists on romance amid dark family mysteries.
The death of her sister and aunt in Arcadia Awakens (2012) have left Rosa Alcantara the head of a Sicilian Mafia clan. Her love affair with Alessandro, capo of the rival Carnevare family, makes both of them vulnerable to vicious members of their own families. It's bad enough that they lead different Cosa Nostra clans, but their magical abilities are at odds as well. The Alcantaras become giant snakes, while the Carnevares become panthers, leopards and lions. Rosa mostly ignores the family business while she investigates the brutal rape she endured a year and a half before. Her investigations reveal unsettling truths: Nothing in her pre-Mafia past, neither the rape nor the death of her father, is unrelated to Cosa Nostra. Her own family has engaged in heinous crimes against her and the rest of the Mafia. A climactic battle—partially described in a six-page cellphone conversation between Rosa and Alessandro—ties up a few loose ends and leaves the rest for the next volume.
Mafiosa Rosa is rarely likable, but this tough survivor takes control of her own life, determined not to be controlled, assaulted, lied to or—quite literally—devoured . (Paranormal romance. 14-16)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-200608-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
If Becky actually were a manic pixie dream girl, there’d at least be some whimsy breaking up the dragging, self-centered,...
Nothing gives a boy moral superiority like being awkwardly aroused by the least popular girl in high school.
Tyler’s friends call him “jerk,” “idiot,” “dick” and “asshead.” Could he possibly be that bad? Is it that much of a problem that he’s been dating sweet Sydney Barrett for years while crushing hard on friendless Becky Webb, shunned by everyone else in school for being the town slut? In a narrative that interleaves exposition-heavy flashbacks with his present (wasted in the park, drunk on butterscotch-pudding shooters), Tyler describes the history of his relationship with Becky. Perhaps that should be his nonrelationship, because he has spent years being unkind to Sydney while gazing dreamily at Becky’s tattoo from across the cafeteria. Tyler’s tortured overtures to Becky would be more believably redemptive if he didn’t share in his classmates’ double standard of shaming, needing to find a reason for Becky’s sexual activities before he can find her worthy. Tyler, apparently, deserves a medal for choosing not to have meaningless sex with a suffering friend; what a hero.
If Becky actually were a manic pixie dream girl, there’d at least be some whimsy breaking up the dragging, self-centered, deeply unkind angst . (Fiction. 14-16)Pub Date: April 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87005-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
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