Two stories, past and present, twine together in this haunting British exploration of faith and sexuality. In the past, Lt. Edmund Pearson, scion of a landed family, finds love and loses his faith in the trenches of WWI. In the present, Greg, a working-class teenager, finds himself struggling with both. Physically uniting the two stories is Graveney Hall, the seat of the Pearsons; in its full splendor in the WWI storyline, it has been reduced to a burned-out shell by Greg’s time. The parallel stories play off each other perfectly; at the beginning of the novel, Edmund is unabashedly in love with Alex—and Alex with Edmund. Greg is far less certain of himself. He has begun to cultivate a quiet and rewarding friendship with Jordan, a swimmer whose body becomes the subject of some fabulously sensuous writing. At the same time, he encounters Faith while taking photographs around the grounds of Graveney Hall; her outspoken Christianity becomes both an irritant and a fascination for him as he rather chaotically tries to sort out his maturing relationship to the world. If the novel is prone to frequently stagy discussions of God and sex in both times, it is also magnificently paced, unfolding deliberately according to its own rules. Both the ardent Edmund and the less-certain Greg are well realized and thoroughly engaging. The secondary characters are somewhat less so—both Alex and Jordan seem almost too good to be true, although appealing in that goodness, and Faith is simply a cipher, more an eponymous symbol than a human being. These flaws aside, it stands as an ambitious, multilayered, and above all literary contribution to a literature that all too often seeks to dodge complexity. Newbery’s fluid prose has been retained almost entirely intact from the original British, grounding the story firmly in its all-important setting—a welcome change from the trend among American publishers to try to pretend that Britain is simply a far-flung extension of the States. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-75011-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
