A plot-heavy saga.
A Southern gothic about family secrets and a dead sister.
Nearly a year ago Cage Shaw fled after being spotted over the dead body of his girlfriend, Ro Cole. Ro’s artistic younger sister, Mae, still doesn’t know what really happened—though she suspects it was more than it appeared to be after finding an old family-heirloom journal that was most recently Ro’s. In it is such disturbing content as the “Ritual for a Raising,” other apparent spells, and cryptic notes, some written by Ro herself. Meanwhile, Cage wakes in a hospital with vague memories of a motorcycle crash and makes his way back to the decaying Cole home, Blue Gate, where he’s shocked to learn that a year has passed, Ro is dead, and he is a pariah. He says he’s innocent, and Mae finds herself believing him. In between Mae’s investigation of Ro’s secrets and Cage’s attempts to figure out what’s happened over the past year, the text jumps back into Cole family history, to 1859, when Grady Cole falls for a magic-using outsider with the ability to raise the dead. The modern-time romance is light, as both of Mae’s potential love interests are hung up on Ro, and the setting—the derelict estate on the Alabama coast—suits the creepy, ritualistic, magical elements of a plot that confuses at times but mostly weaves together by the ending twists. All characters are white.
A plot-heavy saga. (Paranormal romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1476-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A taut yet winding mystery that will keep readers guessing.
In this thriller, a flyer on the cheer team at her small-town Texas high school is dragged back into the awful events that claimed her best friend and her boyfriend.
Senior Iris Henley was horrified when her boyfriend, Rocky Koenig, and her former best friend, Lynette Zeiger, were found dead in a presumed murder-suicide the previous school year. She and Lynette, whose drug use was spiraling out of control, had already fallen out, but Iris had no idea Rocky was cheating on her with Lynette. But when anonymous social media posts claim that Iris herself is responsible for their deaths, her life becomes a nightmare of accusations and betrayal. Employing first-person, present-tense narration that feels immediate and anxious, this mystery builds steadily over the course of 25 days during which Iris feels increasingly desperate and unsure whom she can trust. Her troubled relationships with her friends and family are multidimensional and render her a sympathetic and likable narrator, who worries about her own reliability as she was drunk and high the night of the deaths. In particular, a subplot involving Iris’ growing understanding of her younger sister, Noelle, lends emotional depth to this whodunit. The central cast is white, and surnames suggest that some members of the supporting cast are Latine, including Iris’ best friend.
A taut yet winding mystery that will keep readers guessing. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781250323835
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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