A buoyant tale of romance and youthful exuberance.
Two Florida teens’ newfound love is put to the test when the couple is separated by distance in Hunniecutt’s YA novel.
Madi Henderson and her little sister, Roe, are spending a summer at their grandparents’ beach house. The handsome boy with the swimmer’s build next door quickly catches Madi’s eye. Matthew Antonopoulos, a weekend lifeguard who’s also staying with his grandparents, is equally smitten with his 14-year-old neighbor. They officially meet at his 16th birthday party, and it’s not long before they’re sneaking glances at each other. Romance blossoms, but eventually they have to say goodbye. Back home in Orlando, Madi passes four years of high school with not as much contact as she’d like from Matthew. However, once she matriculates at Florida State University, where Matthew is already studying, their relationship picks up steam again. Will circumstances separate the young couple a second time, or will they forge ahead together and plan a future that the two can share? Hunniecutt’s feel-good story establishes a likable cast. At the beach, both sets of grandparents dote on their grandchildren, and Roe is a charming, often unfiltered 8-year-old (“Daddy makes a lot of money talking all the time to strangers, convincing them of stuff”). The narrative gradually builds the teens’ relationship, more than earning all of its romantic moments. (Matthew, for example, has adoring female fans at the public beach, but only Madi breaks through his stoic lifeguard demeanor.) The ever-changing supporting cast isn’t nearly as memorable once Madi makes friends at high school and later at college; fortunately, the story wisely focuses on the couple’s evolution and their individual maturations. Madi, in particular, is morally instructive; she loves books, develops her own “nerdy” fashion style, and makes it clear to Matthew that anything beyond kissing won’t happen until she says it’s okay. The author’s unadorned but descriptive prose makes the novel an easy read.
A buoyant tale of romance and youthful exuberance.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9798988742050
Page Count: 244
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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