A story about platonic love that doesn’t quite satisfy.
Best friends Cady (a girl) and Cooper (a boy) have a list of activities to complete the weekend before graduation, but it doesn’t include forming a lifelong friendship with a stranger.
The list entails skinny-dipping, getting drunk, having a first kiss, and other activities the duo believes their high school peers have already accomplished. When they drag gorgeous high school dropout/carny Eli into their weekend as an unwitting first-kiss object, they expect him to vanish from their lives as quickly as he appeared. Instead, Eli wants real friendship. The true goals behind the bucket list are for Cooper to define his sexual orientation and, subsequently, for him and Cady to clarify their relationship—and the fallout from the resulting complications involves Eli. While the trio’s alternating first-person narration is peppered with entertaining one-liners, their reactions and choices become less believable as the story progresses. Also unfortunate is Eli’s lack of agency and the way tomboyish Cady is pitted against girly girls. Although Cady and Cooper do confront how they’ve used Eli, they don’t truly come to terms with how they’ve objectified him, a human being chosen as a kissing subject solely for the good looks on which the other two hyperfocus. Eli is brown-skinned while Cady and Cooper are white.
A story about platonic love that doesn’t quite satisfy. (Fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: April 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-945053-58-0
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Duet
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story.
Is an exuberant extended family the cure for a breakup? Sophie is about to find out.
When Sophie unexpectedly breaks up with her boyfriend, she isn’t thrilled about spending the holidays at her grandparents’ house instead of with him. And when her grandmother forms a plan to distract Sophie from her broken heart—10 blind dates, each set up by different family members—she’s even less thrilled. Everyone gets involved with the matchmaking, even forming a betting pool on the success of each date. But will Sophie really find someone to fill the space left by her ex? Will her ex get wind of Sophie’s dating spree via social media and want them to get back together? Is that what she even wants anymore? This is a fun story of finding love, getting to know yourself, and getting to know your family. The pace is quick and light, though the characters are fairly shallow and occasionally feel interchangeable, especially with so many names involved. A Christmas tale, the plot is a fast-paced series of dinners, parties, and games, relayed in both narrative form and via texts, though the humor occasionally feels stiff and overwrought. The ending is satisfying, though largely unsurprising. Most characters default to white as members of Sophie’s Italian American extended family, although one of her cousins has a Filipina mother. One uncle is gay.
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-02749-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
Full of drama, emotional turmoil, and high stakes.
What happens to the world after the dust from a revolution has settled?
Friends Annie and Lee were children from very different circles when Atreus killed Lee’s father, dragonlord Leon Stormscourge, ending the uprising on the bloodiest day in Callipolis’ history. For too long the dragonriders held all the power while their people starved and lived in fear. Nine years later, a new generation of dragonriders is emerging, children selected and trained on merit, not bloodlines. Their dragons are finally mature enough for them to compete for Firstrider, a position of power that can give Lee back a small part of what his family lost. However, not only is Lee competing against Annie, but rumors are circulating that some of the royal family have survived and have dragons of their own. Everyone will have to make a choice: Restore the old regime, support the First Protector and the new caste system he created, or look for a new way, no matter what the cost. From the beginning, this book pulls readers in with political intrigue and action. What keeps them invested, however, are the complex relationships between many cast members. Choices are complex, and the consequences for all could be deadly. The world is well fleshed out and believable. Annie and Lee are light skinned; secondary characters are diverse, and race is a nonissue in this world.
Full of drama, emotional turmoil, and high stakes. (author’s note) (Fantasy.14-17)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51821-1
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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