Despite its enjoyable characters and palpable passion, sloppy execution and overall predictability make this one to skip....
Peppered with dirty jokes and sentimental moments, this risqué debut follows a quixotic quarterback and a self-possessed cheerleader through their torrid romance.
Headstrong and vaguely anti-social, high school senior Dallas Bryan knows who she is and what she wants: She’s a dancer masquerading as a cheerleader who wants out of Castle Rock, Colorado, by way of CalArts. Uninterested in dating, she nevertheless finds herself embroiled with Drayton Lahey, Archwood High’s superhot, superrich star quarterback. Can their tenuous pairing survive past high school? The book is driven by two major commitment-related conflicts: Drayton battles with his parents over pressure to continue a family legacy of playing for Baylor University while Dallas must come to terms with her aversion to serious relationships. A forthright narrator, Dallas shares the always horny, often boozy highlights of the adventures enabled by Drayton’s bottomless wallet and selectively permissive parents. In one episode, an away-game liaison leads to a jaunt in California; in another, a CalArts campus tour guide shows up in Colorado and forces the not-quite-couple to acknowledge their bond—which, as an outcome of their ongoing romantic tension, will not come as a surprise to readers. Occasional narrative omissions prove disappointing, and linguistic slips by the New Zealand author are distracting. Most characters are assumed white; Dallas’ best friend is cued as black.
Despite its enjoyable characters and palpable passion, sloppy execution and overall predictability make this one to skip. (Romance. 15-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9936899-4-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Wattpad Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
Packed with dense maunderings, this out-of-control tome might appeal to readers of slow-moving fairy stories aimed at...
Even a fairy princess can have a dreadful childhood.
Jess—superskinny, foulmouthed, friendless—lives in poverty with her helpless, alcoholic mum. She thinks of herself as a weird loner who’s allergic to metal and processed foods, but maybe there’s a reason for her strangeness. A sexually violent encounter makes Jess lash out with a shocking mystical power. The old homeless man who sleeps under the bridge reveals all: Jess is a winged faery changeling, and he’s a faery lord who’s been protecting her from the grotesque tortures and grisly deaths of Faery. Myriad muddled plot threads come together. There’s the dorky artist from a psychologically abusive home, the long-lost great-grandmother on a faery-infested estate, and the solitary fey who nursemaids a forbidden human changeling. This last is the only brown-skinned character of note in a world where the highest-ranking fey are “a ravishing beauty [with] milk-white skin” or “pale and softly glowing with rainbow-tinted glimmers, like a pearl.” Clumsy prose mars the slow-moving whole, though Jess, rough-edged and short-tempered, is compelling enough to keep the overwritten pages turning. The most appealing secondary characters are dropped halfway through, while one clearly important secondary character is barely introduced, presumably left for a second volume.
Packed with dense maunderings, this out-of-control tome might appeal to readers of slow-moving fairy stories aimed at adults—but likely won’t . (Fantasy. 15-adult)Pub Date: April 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-911427-02-5
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Everything With Words
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
A standard novel about being true to who you are.
A young, white television star breaks away from Hollywood to go on a cross-country road trip with four of his biggest fans.
Cash Carter, with his good looks and celebrity status as the lead on the wildly successful television show Wiz Kids, seems to have it all. The only problem is that he is miserable. Tired of feeling that he has no control over his life, he answers a fan letter inviting him to accompany four friends on their pre-college road trip from Illinois to California. While Colfer has some good insights into the realities of dealing with fame, this latest novel is a paint-by-numbers coming-of-age story with cringeworthy dialogue and a cast of stock characters whose racial and sexual diversity feels forced and provides little three-dimensionality. Every character-stereotype box is checked, from the mixed-race closeted preacher’s son to the Japanese-American girl whose father barely understands English and is intent on pushing her into Stanford. The author clearly understands the downside of becoming a young TV sensation but struggles to translate that experience to Cash’s character in a way that generates empathy. The supporting characters have their own struggles but are off on their road trip before those can resonate with readers. The novel’s best scene is when Cash helps the closeted character accept himself.
A standard novel about being true to who you are. (Fiction. 15-17)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-38344-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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