Readers will drown in this finely crafted, atmospheric book.
A teen finds love and danger in a cursed Pacific coast town.
Two hundred years ago, the townsfolk of all-white Sparrow, Oregon, found the three beautiful Swan sisters guilty of witchcraft and executed them by drowning. Ever since, the town has suffered through Swan season: on June 1, the vengeful sisters return from their watery graves to possess the bodies of local girls and lure boys to watery deaths. In response to the inevitability of the three to six deaths each June, the locals have built traditions, even celebrations, around it, and morbid, thrill-seeking tourists come to see the curse in action. Penny Talbot lives on the lighthouse island just off the coast, and she might stay forever in order to care for her mother, who had a breakdown after Penny’s father vanished years ago. The day before Swan season, a cute boy comes into town seeking work and a place to stay. Even though Penny knows he’s hiding something, she’s attracted to him and wants to protect him from the murderous curse. Some readers won’t like how quickly they fall deeply in love, but the characters’ chemistry and connection anchor the mystery and give them a reason to fight against the curse. Penny’s first-person narration is interspersed with third-person snippets of the sisters’ history, effective for pacing and provoking curiosity in this stand-alone.
Readers will drown in this finely crafted, atmospheric book. (Paranormal romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9734-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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