Two love stories for the price of one fun, but predictable, story.
Texan best friends Willa and Flor both break “girl code” as they deal with personal crises, heartache, and love.
Sweet, loyal Willa Evans knows how to pretend. She has secretly loved her football-player neighbor Zach Tucker for so long even her bestie, popular, athletic beauty Flor Hidalgo, has no clue. Zach and Flor broke up nine days earlier, and Willa doesn’t want her relief to show. Instead, Willa, Flor, and their rebellious friend Jenna decide to start an “official girl-code manual.” Almost immediately, Willa breaks rule No. 1, “never date a friend’s ex,” when she ends up in a dark closet with Zach, while Flor keeps secrets about her increasingly chaotic home life (her mother abandoned the family, and her single father has started dating someone barely older than she) and her developing feelings for her smart and sexy new math tutor, Grayson O’Malley. While the book will please fans of “friends to more” and “opposites attract” romances, it barely passes the Bechdel test. Willa, who’s white and middle class, and Flor, who’s half-white, half-Mexican and conspicuously rich, talk more about boys and dating than anything substantive. Both love interests are white. The dual perspective may be necessary, but Flor’s narrative is more nuanced and the chemistry in her banter-filled romance more exciting; Willa’s gets steamy too quickly to offer much tension.
Two love stories for the price of one fun, but predictable, story. (Fiction.14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-97706-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
A dark and intriguing fairy-tale adaptation.
A red-cloaked girl encounters (were)wolves.
Born and raised in Oakvale, a small town surrounded by a beast-riddled and ever encroaching dark wood, 16-year-old Adele Duval enjoys her provincial life. She hopes to wed and raise children with Grainger Colbert, spend time with her sister and mother, and overcome rumors of the Duval family curse. However, on a trip to see her Gran in the wood, Adele unexpectedly transforms into a redwulf and learns she is now a lycanthropic guardian like her mother and grandmother. To her dismay, Adele also learns that she’s long been betrothed to Maxime Bernard, a handsome carpenter from Ashborne who is privy to her secret superpowers. Tasked with protecting villagers and travelers against the other monsters of the dark wood, Adele relishes her new powers but struggles with her new responsibilities and romantic prospects. The beasts in the woods—often heard rather than seen, per the best horror conventions—may eat people, but faced with hard decisions and hard-line villagers, Adele discovers that humans can be equally dangerous, particularly to independent and unconventional women. Pivoting from her contemporary thrillers, Vincent offers a richly detailed, old-fashioned fantasy with a dash of horror set in a pre-industrial Francophone European countryside populated by White characters. Vincent’s contemplation and dissection of monstrosity elevates this retelling above a crowded field but dilutes its insights with regrettably generic tropes.
A dark and intriguing fairy-tale adaptation. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-241162-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
A sweet, charming story with both heartwarming and heart-rending moments.
A story of Black love in its many beautiful forms.
Danielle Ford is in her senior year of high school in Detroit. She dreams of becoming an author like the Black women writers she looks up to and has spent years honing her skills. However, since experiencing a traumatic assault last year—something she has kept secret from her family and closest friends—Dani has been unable to write or socialize like before. Her sole refuge lies in writing letters to her idols—Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, bell hooks—sharing her thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, her classmate Prince Jones has had a crush on her since middle school. He works as a radio DJ, giving out advice on love, but ironically Prince’s own life is lacking in the romance department. Most of his time is spent taking care of his younger brother and disabled mother. However, when an opportunity arises for him to date the girl of his dreams, Prince seizes it. Cynical Dani is surprised to find herself accepting Prince’s challenge to get her to fall in love with him in only three dates. LaDelle does a fantastic job of bringing the complex, dynamic personalities and relationships of her characters to life while highlighting romantic, familial, and platonic love as well as self-love. Strong pacing allows the storylines to flow organically. Readers will find themselves hooked from the first page to the last.
A sweet, charming story with both heartwarming and heart-rending moments. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-815-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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