A multilayered and well-told paranormal thriller with strong character and plot development.
A teenager investigates why so many residents in her Colorado town report alien abductions in this YA SF/romance novel.
For a small town, Dawson certainly has a high number of people attending Alien Abductees Anonymous meetings. They have similar stories: waking up unable to move in a bare, white room; sadistic poking and prodding; triangular-headed beings. Dutch Indonesian Cassidy Roekiem, a high school senior, is skeptical, but she’s had odd experiences like those of the support group, including losing two hours of her life and having flashbacks. As Cassidy makes contact with others who’ve had comparable flashbacks, she grows closer to handsome Hayden McGraw, who’s hiding his own link to aliens. Meanwhile, she’s looking into the so-called wellness resort Eden Estate, where her mother, Nina, has been staying since her research for a book on the 1985 vanishing of the president’s daughter, Jane Flanagan, turned into an obsession and breakdown. Alarmed by many red flags at Eden, Cassidy is determined to spring Nina by finding Flanagan herself. With the help of friends, Cassidy investigates the case—becoming embroiled in several dangerous secrets, including the connections among Eden Estate, Flanagan, and the CIA’s top-secret Parallax Human Intervention Unit. In her latest YA novel, Barneveld offers a cleverly constructed plot, letting readers in on much that Cassidy doesn’t know while still springing an unexpected development late in the tale that adds an intriguing complication. Cassidy’s an engaging character, tenacious, smart, and linguistically gifted; her facility in American Sign Language comes in handy. Also blending in well with the overall story is the romance between Cassidy and Hayden, which gains an extra dimension to the usual angst-y teen passion because of his secret life and its expectations.
A multilayered and well-told paranormal thriller with strong character and plot development.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68-281573-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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