Fluffy and fun fodder for romance fans.
High school seniors Easton and Harper strike a mutually beneficial agreement: His senior prank shenanigans stay under wraps, and she gets a date to prom.
It’s a dare gone wrong for hockey hotshot Easton: Ask his longtime crush, Maddie, to prom and get a “yes” or steal the rival high school’s mascot costume. After Maddie turns him down, Harper catches Easton wearing the rhino getup and making a run for it, and she offers him a deal: She’ll keep his secret and help him complete the prank if he agrees to take her to prom. She volunteered on the prom committee and bought her dream dress—all she needs now is a date. Neither of them expected feelings between them to grow or how difficult it would be to express them. Harper and Easton, who are cued white, are likable characters with good chemistry, and their tension-filled scenes lead to a satisfying, sweetly romantic ending. Though there are hints about pressures and stresses in their home lives, the lack of character development leaves these topics underexplored. Easton’s hockey career plays a small role; there are a few practices and discussions of his college scholarship, but readers expecting more sports content may be disappointed. Some of the language and phrasing Ney uses in her YA debut feels outdated or as if it’s trying so hard to sound like a teenager’s voice that it pulls readers out of the story.
Fluffy and fun fodder for romance fans. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9798217117390
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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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