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
Fans of Kristin Cashore's Graceling (2008) will be drawn to the despised warrior princess; fans of Cindy Pon's Silver...
In a magical ancient Korea, a demon-slaying princess defends her family and her kingdom.
Kira may be the king's own niece and Hansong's lone female warrior, but that doesn't make her popular. Her yellow eyes and demon-hunting abilities make the citizenry fear her; her male clothing and fighting skills make the nobility loathe her. At least in her role as bodyguard to the heir, her young cousin Taejo, she has a purpose in the court. Hopefully that purpose will be enough to convince her parents not to marry her off to the attractive but vicious nephew of the king's advisor, Lord Shin. Despite all her suspicions, which are aided by prophetic visions, Kira doesn't foresee treachery soon enough. Lord Shin lets Yamato soldiers into the castle—many of whom are possessed by demons only Kira can see. She flees with Taejo, and thus begins a prophecy-driven quest to take back their kingdom from the Yamato and avenge their lost. Muddling through on equal parts martial arts and stubbornness, Kira finds new allies and gains desperately needed magical skills.
Fans of Kristin Cashore's Graceling (2008) will be drawn to the despised warrior princess; fans of Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix (2009) will love the setting . (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-209109-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
Haunting, frank and un-put-downable.
A teen girl grapples movingly with maternal abandonment, sexuality and identity.
Anna is the center of her young mother’s world: “Now I have everything,” she tells wee Anna repeatedly. Eventually, her devotion to single motherhood proves insufficient to address her own abandonment issues. Anna’s mom begins to date, marry and divorce a series of faceless men in a depressing and self-defeating cycle that leaves her pre-pubescent daughter totally unmoored. Now middle school–aged, Anna is alone for days at a time in an empty suburban house, and she drifts into a series of precociously sexual encounters that she thinks will give her the “everything” she wants so badly. As much a user of boys as she is used by them, Anna is often sad but rarely self-pitying, finding ways to cope with loneliness and the self-sufficiency her neglectful mother has thrust upon her: stretching the grocery money, keeping the television on for company, building an enviable thrift-shop wardrobe. Friendship with Toy, a similarly wounded connoisseur of fashion and boys, leads Anna to look for something bigger and better in her relationships. The final third of the story moves a bit fast, but it works, and Anna is so compellingly flawed and quietly winning that readers won’t quibble.
Haunting, frank and un-put-downable. (Fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-00711-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
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