An endearing, feel-good rom-com celebrating love, heritage, and friendship.
Patel’s friends-to-lovers romance takes readers on a journey of friendship, love, and celebrating Indian culture set between Austin and Dubai.
High school senior and aspiring photographer Nikki finds herself pushed to repair her relationship with neighbor and former best friend Yash during a weeklong trip to Dubai to celebrate Diwali with their families. The teens’ parents are incredibly close, and Nikki’s mother and father urge her to do the right thing: “there is light in forgiveness, and only darkness by holding grudges.” As the trip goes on, the two do mend their rift, but complicating matters, Nikki realizes she’s developing romantic feelings for the boy she grew up with. She fears that this revelation would ruin their still-fragile rapport but fails to stop herself from impulsively confessing that she likes him. As it turns out, Yash has a confession of his own, one related to a complicated secret he’s been hiding from her that threatens their newly rebuilt trust. The book is humorous and full of sharp wit. It touches lightly on topics of otherness, feminism, extended family and community, and cultural differences in ways that will speak to teens from many backgrounds. Patel’s Gujarati characters move through lovingly described surroundings, but the setting is at times overdeveloped, slowing the pace of the narrative. Food and joyous all-out Diwali celebrations also feature heavily, adding to the festive mood.
An endearing, feel-good rom-com celebrating love, heritage, and friendship. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781419766961
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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