As a dance-filled coming-of-age tale, the story keeps the beat, but as a romance, it stumbles.
“Geeky loner” Rick Gutiérrez convinces his romantically uninterested crush to spend a summer perfecting their salsa-dancing skills in Cuba.
When motherless Rick’s first-and-only girlfriend dumps him on his 16th birthday, the lolcat-video entrepreneur dubbed “That Cat Guy” by his classmates decides to take more risks. He meets the beautiful, salsa-dancing Ana Cabrera and joins her at a New York City salsa school in hopes of scoring a date. A few months later, half-Cuban, half-German Rick has progressed to a mediocre casino dancer but is still just friends with Ana. When Ana suffers a tragedy, Rick impulsively suggests they visit his dead mother’s relatives in Havana in order to reconnect to his roots and immerse themselves in dancing salsa. Improbably, off Rick and Ana go to Cuba, where living conditions are quite different than they imagined. Rick’s teen cousin Yosvany is a player who keeps flirting with Ana and pointing out the ways Rick lacks game, but at least he introduces them to Pablo, an accomplished dance instructor. The debut author is a veteran salsa teacher, so it’s unsurprising the dance descriptions and detailed music references are authentic, but several of the plot points prove beyond belief, such as how the teens are allowed to go to Cuba to begin with, not to mention eventually involve themselves in dangerous Communist-subverting activities.
As a dance-filled coming-of-age tale, the story keeps the beat, but as a romance, it stumbles. (Fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-242283-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Leaves readers wanting more, so it's a good thing the sequel potential is well set up
A flavorful variant of Society Girl meets Scruffy Rapscallion in a steampunk-influenced fantasy.
Vespa is the daughter of the Head of the Museum of Unnatural History. Though she should be preparing for marriage, she wants only to work with the Unnaturals; she aims to be the first such woman in 500 years. Syrus, meanwhile, is a Tinker, one of a Chinese-speaking, tilted-eyed race who protect the Elementals, those magical creatures the city folk call Unnaturals and would capture and display in the Museum. Though their positions initially place them at odds—they meet when Syrus robs Vespa's carriage on the highway—they are thrown together in a quest to save the world from the requisite dark forces. Here, though, the darkness comes through a tricky and clever bit of worldbuilding: the Victorian-esque humans arrived here when Saint Tesla tore a hole in the universe and brought them willy-nilly from Old London. The conflict between the human colonists and the local population of Sphinx, Grue and Manticore can make or unmake this world. Though the steam-powered technological potential promised by "Saint Darwin's Litany of Evolution" and statues of Saints Bacon and Newton is disappointingly unmet in this thoroughly magical world, the rich ambience makes up for the loss.
Leaves readers wanting more, so it's a good thing the sequel potential is well set up . (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2206-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
There’s always a need for more sports stories for girls, and this is a solid addition to the genre.
It’s a busy year for Melinda Drake Radford as she wrestles on the JV team—and with other challenges of her sophomore year, too.
Sometimes, Mel wishes she were a guy, or more like a guy. She envies their muscles and confidence and power. But over the course of several busy months, she does just fine as a girl, even as a girl wrestler, where on the mat “the conditions are always the same. The mats are nearly all the same dimensions. Matches are indoors. Singlets and wrestling shoes are pretty much the same. It’s just you and your opponent. For three two-minute periods.” Off the mats, the world is less predictable. Her wealthy grandmother is pushing her into the business world, her boyfriend is pushing her into the bedroom and her varsity-wrestler brother pushes her to work harder, get better. Despite flat pacing, the novel is a solid portrait of a teenage girl trying to be herself when everyone else seems to be deciding her life for her. Though wrestling is the heart of the tale, Martino wisely resists heavy-handed and inspirational sports metaphors, letting Mel’s actions speak for themselves.
There’s always a need for more sports stories for girls, and this is a solid addition to the genre. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59316-600-7
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Coles Street Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
