Engaging enough to keep Kate’s legions of fans happy.
The long-standing Fallen series continues with bad boy fallen angel Cam trying to win back his lost love from ancient Israel, entering into a deal with the devil to do it.
In 1,000 B.C.E. Cam and Lilith fell in love, but Cam broke Lilith’s heart. Now he learns something he has been unaware of for millennia: Lilith has been in Hell all this time. He meets with Lucifer, who shows him via endless snow globe–style worlds how Lilith has been in one Hell after the other for millennia. Cam accepts a deal: if he does not win Lilith’s heart in two weeks, he will become Lucifer’s slave for eternity. The difficulty is that Lilith hates Cam, so he will have to break through that hatred to turn things around. In her current Hell, Lilith lives in poverty and attends a horrible high school that runs seven days per week with no holidays and where she is bullied by students and teachers alike. Cam joins in as a new student and uses Lilith’s deep musical talent to try to win her love. However, Lucifer turns up in the form of Luc, a music promoter, to deceive Lilith into believing that Cam is untrustworthy. Nevertheless, Cam continues his efforts to win her over, despite the fact that Lucifer is aging him from a handsome boy into a dumpy, balding, unattractive guy. Will Lilith be able to see through Lucifer’s deceptions and regain the love she felt for Cam so long ago? It’s all pretty soapy, but Kate delivers for her fans, her snow-globe world plausible if not entirely original, and keeps suspense high enough to keep readers turning pages.
Engaging enough to keep Kate’s legions of fans happy. (Paranormal romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-74263-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 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
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