Wilde, Jen. Queens of Geek.

Wilde, Jen. Queens of Geek. Macmillan/Swoon Reads     2017  262p  $10.99  Paperback  ISBN 978-1-250-11139-5   hs  Realistic fiction  VG-BN   

Three characters, all Australian teenagers, fly to LA to attend a Comi-Con type of convention.  Charlie, of Chinese ancestry, has starred in a movie.  She was in love with the male star, but they have separated and she has moved on. This is her event.  She has to do many publicity events with the ex.  He thinks they will get together again, but she has met a girl she has had a crush on for years, and they mesh completely.
 

Taylor, who has identified that she is on the autism spectrum, is usually afraid of just about everything.  Taking this trip was a very big step for her.  Jamie has been a steadying influence on her.  He seems to understand her.  She loves him but is afraid he sees her as just a friend.  Jamie has loved Taylor from a distance.  This weekend they each learn the truth about their feelings.
 

This novel presents the message that you need to be who you are and not be controlled by peer pressure or public opinion.  It deals with bisexuality, autism, and love.  There is lots of kissing and some fondling but no actual sex scenes.  The novel includes mature content, so it is most suitable for high-school readers.      Wrapped in a contemporary novel that refers to texting and social media uses, the story touches on issues of bisexuality, autism, peer pressure and being honest with yourself.  For high school.

Summary: Charlie, a Chinese-Australian actress, Taylor, who is autistic and a writer, and Jamie, a geek photographic artist, all fly to LA to attend a Comi-Con type convention.  There they each find their own reality and love.

Autism-Fiction, Love-Fiction                                      --Joan Theal

Mills, Emma. This Adventure Ends.

Mills, Emma.  This Adventure Ends. Macmillan/Henry Holt  2016       308p    $17.99  ISBN 978-1-62779-935-5     hs  Realistic fiction  VG-BN                       

This Adventure Ends is a light, fun, and quirky read.  Starting with the initial impression it gives, the cover art is beautiful and will certainly attract readers from the shelf.  Sloane moves to a new town and immediately falls into a group of friends that is populated with wonderful, heartfelt, funny, and realistic characters.  Emma Mills’s character development is superb.  Each character is fully rounded, endearing, and hard to let go of.  The reader feels emotionally attached to even fringe characters and is invested in the various subplots. While there is a romantic bent to the storyline, its heart is in its depictions of friendships -- the attachments, betrayals, confusions and loyalties between these friends, which for most readers will reflect the relationships in their own lives.
 

Beyond her friendships, Sloane is also dealing with complexity within her own family.  Her father is a very well known but blocked romance writer who pulls from his own life to build his characters.  The relationship between him and his wife, Sloane’s mother, is complicated and tense.  These two issues — the marital relationship and the struggling artist — impact Sloane in various ways. 
 

In part, this story is one of adventure.  Sloane is trying to recover a painting that means a great deal to her friends, and on the way she finds some very real connections with her group of friends and her family that help her reflect on the magic of all the relationships in her life and the various meanings and forms of love.                       

Summary: This Adventure Ends is the story of Sloane: new girl to a quirky group of friends, daughter of a romance-novel writer, singer, and skeptic of love.  Sloane is on a quest to recover the sold painting of her best friend’s deceased mother, and along the way she learns the beauty of friendships, family, and love. 

Friendship-Fiction, Love-Fiction                                                                               —Michele Nass

Yee, Lisa. The Kidney Hypothetical, Or How to Ruin Your Life in Seven Days.

Yee, Lisa.  The Kidney Hypothetical, Or How to Ruin Your Life in Seven Days.  Scholastic/Arthur Levine  2015  266p.  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-545-23094-0  hs  Conflict      E-BN      

Higgs Boson Bing, named by his mother who worked at JPL, or the Jet Propulsion Lab, has enough to deal with because of family expectations.  His father wants him to be a third-generation Harvard Dental School-educated dentist.  It’s the last week of senior year.  He is totally on track when his life is derailed by his girlfriend of over two years, who can’t believe he wouldn’t give her a kidney if she asked.  A smear campaign ensues, and he is known as Dinky Dick and other unflattering names, and unflattering flyers are being posted on campus and around town.  He tries to overcome these and other humiliating circumstances, including being seasick on the Senior Sail.  In the last week of school he stumbles onto an abandoned Airstream trailer and finds Monarch, a girl who seems to do just as she wishes with no outside authority telling her how to live and what to do with her life.  This novel provides a sometimes funny, yet very serious look at what parents’ expectations can do to a high-school student. Readers will identify with Monarch, whose mysterious background is finally revealed, as well as cheer for Higgs Boson as he aligns his future to his own goals.  This is a quick read that is fast-paced, with quirky characters that are very believable.                

Strongly recommended for contemporary fiction collections as it addresses a very real problem: parents directing their children to overachieve in order to get into quality colleges in order to follow family aspirations and occupations.

Summary: Higg Bing is on track to be valedictorian and Best Senior, and he excels in sports.  When he refuses to answer a hypothetical question from his girlfriend, he becomes a social pariah.  Can he survive, and does he really want to go to Harvard? Gr 8-11.      

Friendship-Fiction, Love-Fiction, Parental expectation-Fiction   

--Lois McNicol

The Winner’s Curse. (The Winner’s Trilogy Bk1)

Rutkoski, Marie.  The Winner’s Curse. (The Winner’s Trilogy Bk1)  Farrar Strauss Giroux   2014  355  $18.00  ISBN 978-0-3743-8467-8 jr/sr   Science fiction   E-BN     

Krestel is a feisty heroine skilled in the military arts and weaponry but not yet a warrior.  She is a girl who would prefer to play the piano as her mother did; however, her father has other ideas.  Brought up in a military home with a general for a father, she is expected to join him in a military career, although she would prefer to have the freedom to choose her own life.

Then one day she passes by the slave auction house, and she finds herself the owner of a young man whose tribe her country has conquered.  His entry into her life and home marks the beginning of an intrigue that will leave her wondering about her choices and the direction her life should take.

This is the fast-paced first book in a series that will change things around as it moves forward into a future unknown to both hero and heroine, who hail from different stations in life, creating a clash that is sure to present itself when both will have to choose their futures.       

Summary: Krestel is the general’s daughter, and she has been groomed to take her place in the palace guards.  Her father is hoping she will serve with his guards. 

Love-Fiction, Slavery-Fiction                         --Magna Diaz

There Will Come A Time.

Arcos, Carrie.  There Will Come A Time.  Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse  2014   320p  $17.99  ISBN 978-1-4424-9585-2  hs  Realistic fiction VG

Mark is driving with his twin sister Grace as his passenger when a distracted driver crashes into his car.  Grace dies and Mark enters a mental state in which he obsesses over his role in the crash, feels anger at the driver of the other car, and questions how he can live without Grace and survive the emptiness that fills him.  The grief process is a journey unique to each individual, and Mark’s is especially painful because he has lost his twin.  Through friends, especially Hanna, who lives next door, he finds a way to escape his isolation and move toward self-acceptance by fulfilling a bucket list that he and Hanna find in Grace’s journal. This is a poignant look at how death affects family and friends.  The support group, Twinless Twins, actually exists, and it is integral to the plot.  Mark attends a high school for the arts, and his music helps pull him through his grief, as do his friends as they prepare for their senior project, which is a fashion show including music and dance.  

This novel provides a beacon of hope for anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying to cope with sudden loss.  The book’s title says it all.  While Mark is Filipino, his heritage and the cultural diversity of his friends seem more of a throw-in rather than being integral to the plot.  This advance reviewer copy had a spelling error that needs to be changed from “damn” to “dam” so that the reference to the bridge/rock foundation on page 60 is accurately spelled.      

Summary: A distracted driver crashes into Mark’s car and kills his passenger, his twin sister.  The grief process, relationships within family as well as among friends, and how a twin survives the loss of his sibling are realistically portrayed.  Grades 8-12.

Grief-Fiction, Love-Fiction                                 --Lois McNicol