Enjoyable enough but predictable and lacking in depth.
A Black high school senior on Long Island falls for her archnemesis.
Despite her mom and best friends insisting she should relax and enjoy the summer, Rochelle Coleman is determined to get her first job in order to round out her college application. She’s obsessed with attending the same Ivy League school as her ma and late dad. Rochelle is willing to do anything to get in—even rebuffing her childhood friend, Afro-Latine Amira Rodriguez, whose social butterfly personality feels too distracting. When Rochelle lands a job at Horizon Cinema, the local Black-owned theater, she’s surprised to learn that Amira not only works there but will be her boss. Rochelle’s prickly, competitive personality causes her to clash with her new coworkers and inadvertently hurt Amira’s feelings. But when a series of mishaps lead to the revelation that the Horizon is in financial trouble, the teen crew comes together to save the theater and find the culprit behind the pranks. All the while, Rochelle is trying to understand her growing feelings for Amira. The story contains several popular tropes, including an opposites-attract romance and a small-town business rescue, but it’s lacking in nuance and rich character development. The process of solving the mystery isn’t suspenseful and the guilty party’s identity feels obvious. The novel’s diverse cast of primary and secondary characters is both welcome and refreshing, however.
Enjoyable enough but predictable and lacking in depth. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780063359949
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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 compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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