For reluctant readers looking for a quick, light, romantic read.
A teen must take a step back to recognize that the boy he should be chasing is right beside him.
Charlie is an extroverted, gay teen with ambition to spare but no love life to speak of until Andre, new to Vancouver from Montréal, walks into an outNproud meeting that Charlie attends religiously. Recently asked to serve on the planning committee for outNproud’s queer prom, Charlie is determined to make Andre his date but must contend with pretty boy Chad, his rival at outNproud, for his attention. After talking with best friend Geeda, Charlie comes to the conclusion that he needs a wingman. Enter quiet, closeted Luis, who, after watching Charlie try to impress Andre with the perfect prom song, creates an algorithm that analyzes clichéd plot points of popular teenage romantic comedies in hopes of helping Charlie get the boy. Despite the uphill battle, Charlie is resolute in his desire—but is he overlooking someone else? Charlie comes across as a high-strung teen looking for validation, which readers may come to find endearing. This straightforward, first-person narration clearly demonstrates the honest, frustrating feelings of navigating first crushes as a queer teen. Short chapters and light detail make this an accessible read. Charlie and Chad are white, Andre is black, Luis is Mexican, and Geeda is Asian.
For reluctant readers looking for a quick, light, romantic read. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4594-1407-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come.
A heady blend of courtly double-crossing, Faerie lore, and toxic attraction swirls together in the sequel to The Cruel Prince (2018).
Five months after engineering a coup, human teen Jude is starting to feel the strain of secretly controlling King Cardan and running his Faerie kingdom. Jude’s self-loathing and anger at the traumatic events of her childhood (her Faerie “dad” killed her parents, and Faerie is not a particularly easy place even for the best-adjusted human) drive her ambition, which is tempered by her desire to make the world she loves and hates a little fairer. Much of the story revolves around plotting (the Queen of the Undersea wants the throne; Jude’s Faerie father wants power; Jude’s twin, Taryn, wants her Faerie betrothed by her side), but the underlying tension—sexual and political—between Jude and Cardan also takes some unexpected twists. Black’s writing is both contemporary and classic; her world is, at this point, intensely well-realized, so that some plot twists seem almost inevitable. Faerie is a strange place where immortal, multihued, multiformed denizens can’t lie but can twist everything; Jude—who can lie—is an outlier, and her first-person, present-tense narration reveals more than she would choose. With curly dark brown hair, Jude and Taryn are never identified by race in human terms.
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31035-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
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