An engaging read for sports fans and romance lovers alike.
Elite competition and family legacy take center stage in this ice-rink romance.
To 16-year-old ice skater Adriana Russo, daughter of Olympic gold medalist parents, the spotlight is simply part of life at Boston’s prestigious, family-owned Kellynch Rink. Her older sister, Elisa, stars in a reality TV show with their dad and is on her way to compete in the Beijing Olympics. Maria, her younger sister, is embroiled in relationship drama with her figure skating partner, Charlie Monroe. Meanwhile, Adriana and her ice dancing partner, Brayden Elliott, are preparing for the Junior World Championships in Paris. Enter Freddie O’Connell, former crush, ice dance partner, and best friend, and Adriana has a lot more on her mind than perfecting her routine. Complicating things further is her fictitious romance with Brayden that is vaulting them to social media fame. Behind the glamour, though, is the overwhelming debt created by her father’s lavish spending since the death of her mother four years earlier and the pressure Adriana feels to help keep the family afloat financially. Strained family dynamics and setbacks on the ice add to the obstacles that threaten to distract Adriana from her goals. Woven throughout the story are behind-the-scenes looks into the world of competitive skating and the all-encompassing commitment required and physical demands the athletes face daily. Adriana and most other central characters read as White; Charlie and his family are Black.
An engaging read for sports fans and romance lovers alike. (Romance. 12-17)Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35036-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A meditation on a timely subject that never forgets to put its characters and their stories first
An Afghani-Australian teen named Mina earns a scholarship to a prestigious private school and meets Michael, whose family opposes allowing Muslim refugees and immigrants into the country.
Dual points of view are presented in this moving and intelligent contemporary novel set in Australia. Eleventh-grader Mina is smart and self-possessed—her mother and stepfather (her biological father was murdered in Afghanistan) have moved their business and home across Sydney in order for her to attend Victoria College. She’s determined to excel there, even though being surrounded by such privilege is a culture shock for her. When she meets white Michael, the two are drawn to each other even though his close-knit, activist family espouses a political viewpoint that, though they insist it is merely pragmatic, is unquestionably Islamophobic. Tackling hard topics head-on, Abdel-Fattah explores them fully and with nuance. True-to-life dialogue and realistic teen social dynamics both deepen the tension and provide levity. While Mina and Michael’s attraction seems at first unlikely, the pair’s warmth wins out, and readers will be swept up in their love story and will come away with a clearer understanding of how bias permeates the lives of those targeted by it.
A meditation on a timely subject that never forgets to put its characters and their stories first . (Fiction. 12-17)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-11866-7
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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