An entertaining, well-characterized foray into a world of magical secrets.
A girl who fears magic comes into her own power as she tries to stop her friend from joining a covert society.
Merry, whose mother was cursed by a witch and died, lives in the town of Candlecott in Anglyon, where she’s inseparable from her two best friends, Teddy and Sol. Teddy decides to join the Order of Toadmen, “a secret gentlemen’s society” whose members wield magic that Merry suspects is both illegal and dangerous. Hoping to protect Teddy, she accepts an offer from Caraway, the boy she’s in competition with for the top ranking at school, to attend a mysterious Toad ceremony. There, she uncovers secrets both personal and societal, and her understanding of the world she lives in—and how she should behave in it—is drastically altered. Merry, with her headstrong nature and intense love for her friends and family, is an engaging first-person narrator, and her enemies-to-lovers romance with Caraway unfolds in believable beats; Wilkinson also writes supporting characters like Teddy and Sol in a compelling and nuanced way. The magic system is intriguing, particularly Merry’s ability to see the silver and brown mettle, or “strands of life-force,” that drives it. The mysteries of the Toadmen keep readers in suspense, with Merry gradually uncovering truths about their rituals that connect to the larger social structure of Anglyon and threaten Merry’s own future. Most major characters are pale-skinned; Sol has brown skin.
An entertaining, well-characterized foray into a world of magical secrets. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780593562703
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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