It’s chick lit with redeeming features that may help it appeal to a wide audience.
Ally wants her dad and her boyfriend, Jake, to come back; Jake wants Ally back, but he can’t figure out how to approach her. Failure for both leads to over 300 pages of tantrums, but the teens will learn in the end, as might some readers.
In chapters dominated by Ally but punctuated by passages about Jake, Scott spins her story of adolescent angst. Ally wants to escape being one of the rich kids whose families vacation every summer in expensive beach homes. She doesn’t want to stay with her mom’s new boyfriend, but she makes an impulsive decision to go to the shore anyway and begins a relationship with a local boy who clearly stands on the wrong side of the law. Jake’s mom grounds him for the summer, forcing him to get a summer job with none other than Ally’s dad, now running a local coffee shop. Both teens react with frequent, instant and extreme anger when their fantasies fail to meet reality. The author plays fair by highlighting the stupidity and rudeness of many of their actions, allowing readers to assess the behavior realistically. As Ally makes ever-more-foolish decisions, Jake eventually moves in the opposite direction and helps to save the day.
It’s chick lit with redeeming features that may help it appeal to a wide audience. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1416999539
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
Disappointing.
Unlikely friends fight their growing feelings for each other while placing bets on other people’s love lives.
Bailey met Charlie while flying from Alaska, where she grew up, to Nebraska, where she and her mom would be living after her parents’ divorce. Although they briefly bonded over their parents’ divorces, Charlie’s cynicism grated on the rule-following Bailey, and she was thankful to part ways with him. Three years later, to Bailey’s dismay, she runs into Charlie when they both land jobs at Planet Funnn, a mega-hotel that’s “like a giant landlocked cruise ship.” This time around, Bailey and Charlie begin to get along better. To entertain themselves during their long shifts, they observe and make bets about the hotel guests. But they risk taking it too far when they bet on whether their co-worker Theo will end up with Nekesa, Bailey’s best friend, who’s in “a perfect relationship with the perfect guy.” The book explores Bailey’s conflicted feelings toward her mom’s new relationship with Scott (who doesn’t “do anything wrong” but whose presence changes “the vibe” at home), but it does so in a way that diminishes a primary source of conflict. Bailey's and Charlie’s feelings become even more complicated when Charlie helps Bailey with a fake-dating scheme intended to scare Scott off. Some of the banter between the leads, who are coded white, feels more aggressive than playful, detracting from their intimacy, and the circuitous plot may fail to sustain readers’ interest.
Disappointing. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781665921237
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
A thought-provoking exploration of storytelling dynamics in a social media–driven society.
A Black basketball star starts his senior year by pivoting to find his true voice in the classroom.
Ossie Brown was destined for greatness before an injury in a game ended his high school basketball career. Ossie feels like his future was stolen—and on top of that, his girlfriend dumps him. Grandma Alice comforts him with a reminder that basketball doesn’t define him; still, the game helped Ossie cope with his fractured relationship with his widowed mother. A new opportunity opens up when Ms. Hunt, Ossie’s Black English teacher at mostly white Braxton Academy, where he has a full-ride scholarship, tells him about the Mark Twain Creative Writing Program. A vivid dream in which his father speaks to him inspires Ossie’s application essay. He connects with Luis and Naima, the only other participants who aren’t white, but agitation by conservative students against a “woke agenda” leads to Ms. Hunt’s replacement by a teacher who exclusively uses texts by white authors. Ossie’s online attempt to support Naima’s protest has unintended consequences, and he’s forced to reevaluate his solo activism. The central characters’ relationships will engage readers, and Ossie’s dilemma will resonate with anyone whose good intentions have gone sideways. Committed, pragmatic, and reflective Ossie ultimately learns from Grandma Alice’s wise counsel: “This thing of ours—life, you see—is only as beautiful as the bonds we make as we journey through it.”
A thought-provoking exploration of storytelling dynamics in a social media–driven society. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781536233469
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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