LOVE, JACARANDA

Talent trumps disadvantage in this romance about a teen whisked off by an anonymous benefactor to a prestigious boarding school for the arts in Michigan.

Sixteen-year-old Jacaranda Abbott has spent years moving between foster homes due to her mother’s imprisonment for attempted murder of an abusive boyfriend. When a video of Jacaranda singing at the Miami Publix supermarket at which she works goes viral, it changes the course of her life. The admission essay she writes to Midwestern Arts Academy sets up the details of this story, giving way to a long series of confessional, heartfelt, and unanswered emails directed to Mr. Smith, as she dubs the mystery man responsible for the fairy-tale scenario now playing out. Jacaranda’s voice is quick, witty, and frank, making her an easy, if archetypal, character to root for. Her relationships with her new peers, almost all of whom are dramatically more privileged than she is, provide fertile ground for some convincing points about class and stigma. Jacaranda’s romance with Jarvis, the wealthy, kind cousin of one of her suitemates, is a sweet one, predictably weaving its way through some rocky points with a final twist that will be spotted a long way off by many readers. Jacaranda and Jarvis are white; some racial and ethnic diversity is suggested by secondary characters’ names and textual cues.

An engaging but exceedingly familiar tale of underdog triumph.