Piper’s family has been suffering since the 2008 recession, so Piper needs both a scholarship to an exclusive Washington, D.C., prep school and that school’s Bennington Journalism Endowment so she can go to Columbia.
Piper has one goal in life: to become a journalist. The white girl has edited her public high school newspaper for two years but starts off with boring, routine assignments when she transfers to Chiswick Academy. Piper instantly resents the privileges and corruption enjoyed by the wealthy students. Her goal of winning the Bennington scholarship seems blocked, as the editor of the school paper is also a contender for the prize and won’t give her any good assignments. She meets drop-dead handsome, paparazzi magnet Raf, son of the Spanish ambassador to the United States. She thinks that if she can become an insider with the students who abuse their diplomatic immunity, such as Raf, her exposé will win her the scholarship. Through her friendship with him she gathers enough damaging evidence to destroy his reputation, but predictably, she also finds herself attracted to him. Raf clearly feels the same and makes her his girlfriend in defiance of his father. Readers will have no difficulty guessing much of the subsequent plot, but only die-hard romance fans will believe the final resolution. Piper’s family’s economic woes, her work at the Yogurt Shop, and her on-the-spectrum little brother help to keep things real amid the romantic fluff.
A smoothly written, standard-issue romance. (Romance. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-236856-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Did you like this book?
A blended family seeks a fresh start in a new home.
Tom’s mother believes that the family may have finally found happiness. After years of dating losers, she’s finally settled down with a nice guy—and that nice guy, Jay, happens to have a daughter, Nia, who is just a little older than Tom. The new family has moved into a nice new house, but Tom can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong. They discover a strange message written on the wall when they are stripping the old wallpaper, and there’s clear evidence that the previous owners had installed locks on the exteriors of the bedroom doors. Those previous owners happen to live a little farther down the street, and Tom quickly becomes obsessed with their teenage daughter, Amy, and the secrets she’s hiding. This obsession unfortunately becomes a repetitive slog involving many pages of Tom’s brooding and sulking over the same bits of information while everyone tells him to move on. Readers will be on everyone’s side. But then, a blessed breath of fresh air: The perspective shifts to Amy, and readers learn in spectacularly propulsive fashion exactly what she’s hiding. Regret and intrigue blend perfectly as Amy divulges her secrets. Alas, we return to navel-gazing Tom for the book’s final pages, and everything ends with a shrug. Main characters default to White.
A crackerjack thriller done in by its own dopey protagonist. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72823-189-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
A dystopic thriller joins the crowded shelves but doesn't distinguish itself.
Juliette was torn from her home and thrown into an asylum by The Reestablishment, a militaristic regime in control since an environmental catastrophe left society in ruins. Juliette’s journal holds her tortured thoughts in an attempt to repress memories of the horrific act that landed her in a cell. Mysteriously, Juliette’s touch kills. After months of isolation, her captors suddenly give her a cellmate—Adam, a drop-dead gorgeous guy. Adam, it turns out, is immune to her deadly touch. Unfortunately, he’s a soldier under orders from Warner, a power-hungry 19-year-old. But Adam belongs to a resistance movement; he helps Juliette escape to their stronghold, where she finds that she’s not the only one with superhuman abilities. The ending falls flat as the plot devolves into comic-book territory. Fast-paced action scenes convey imminent danger vividly, but there’s little sense of a broader world here. Overreliance on metaphor to express Juliette’s jaw-dropping surprise wears thin: “My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps. My eyebrows are dangling from the ceiling.” For all of her independence and superpowers, Juliette never moves beyond her role as a pawn in someone else’s schemes.
Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-208548-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2022 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
