A delightfully inspiring story that champions loving yourself.
Seventeen-year-old Abir Maqsood, a Muslim girl from Bangalore, India, has her life all planned out.
She hopes to ace her exams, study software engineering, and make her own life choices. Her conservative, working-class parents, keen to get her married off, think otherwise. When Abir’s mother, a part-time bridal henna artist, is cheated out of her full compensation, a seething Abir ensures the clients pay up. This success inspires her to want to continue helping her mother—and after Abir hears about an incubation program competition, she dreams up a henna service app for booking and prepayment. Executing this plan involves teaming up with her friend Keerthi, her crush, Sahil, and the annoying class Casanova, Arsalan. As the group presses on with an app prototype, Abir finds herself caught in a web of changing feelings, deception, lies—and her parents’ wishes. The fast-paced story skillfully tackles issues of class, societal constraints, and first brushes with romance with spirit and humor. Abir’s strength of conviction and belief in her abilities make her a likable, well-defined character. The writing paints a realistic and relatable portrait of barriers that girls from conservative families must deal with. Though the enemies-to-lovers trope is continually underscored, the book posits many thoughtful questions about societal restrictions and shows there is room for grace in shifting one’s perspective about oneself and others.
A delightfully inspiring story that champions loving yourself. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780143463689
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Duckbill
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
A worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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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