October 5, 2015
Seventeen-year-old Harper Sloan made a lot of mistakes during the past year, and she keeps making them now that summer has started. Word has gotten around that Harper likes to hook up with boys, and she keeps getting entangled with guys who are bad for her self-esteem and her reputation. Then Declan, Harper’s ex and first love, returns home from boarding school for the summer. Harper still longs for him, but life has been hard (she got kicked off the swim team, her mother has breast cancer), and she can’t seem to make the decisions that will get her back to where she wants to be. In a story about forgiveness and survival, debut author Martin takes on tough issues like the fragility of girls’ reputations and the fear of potentially losing a parent. Martin gives Harper a lifeline in Declan, who shows himself to be smart, supportive, and loyal. As these two teens find their way back to each other, readers will hope they can also find something resembling a happy ending. Ages 14–up. Agent: Lara Perkins, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
October 1, 2015
Reeling from a reputation-staining episode the previous spring and the news that her mother has breast cancer, Harper is ready to patch things up with Declan, the boyfriend she dumped last fall. Swayed by new friend Sadie, Harper has turned to partying and heavy drinking, along with short, meaningless flings with other boys. In the summer before their senior year, Declan returns from boarding school, where his father sent him after his mother died. Harper's success at convincing Declan that she cares for him is uneven at best. Her old friends watch as she chases the fleeting satisfaction of getting wasted and hooking up and tries to deal with her growing addiction. Martin's insight into the teen psyche is spot-on, capturing the intensely narrow lens through which teens sometimes see the world. Harper's self-focused first-person present tense reveals her complete inability to see beyond her own moment-by-moment interpretation of events. She's easily influenced, makes presumptions about others, and is oblivious to the pain she causes family and friends. Yet even as her behavior pushes boundaries, her self-esteem is so low that she can't see a way out of the path she's headed down and can't put her own actions in perspective. Despite its happy-ish ending, the book makes clear that Harper still has some growing up to do. For readers who crave drama. (Fiction. 13-17)
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November 1, 2015
Gr 8 Up-Harper has faced a lot of changes in the last year. Declan, her best friend turned boyfriend, went away to boarding school, and her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Harper copes by making a series of bad choices, gaining herself a bad reputation, and losing Declan and her parents' trust. When Declan returns home for the summer, it's up to Harper to face the consequences and put the life she wants back together. The protagonist repeats the same mistakes, but her voice is so clear and her motivations so believable that readers can't help but root for her to succeed. Harper's tendency to stand up for other girls, even when they make choices she's realized don't work for her, is refreshing. Martin skillfully builds tension with the push and pull of Harper and Declan's relationship, which is aided greatly by the depth of Declan's character as more than a object for the heroine to obtain. VERDICT A relatable story about choices and their consequences that will not disappoint fans of Sarah Dessen and Melissa Walker.-Elizabeth Saxton, Tiffin, OH
Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2016
Last year, Harper's boyfriend, Declan, lost his mother and left for boarding school; unable to cope, Harper chose partying and hook-ups over a long-distance relationship. When Declan returns for the summer, Harper wants to make amends but struggles to give up self-destructive habits. Although Harper is a sympathetic narrator with genuinely conflicted feelings about her choices, the will-they-won't-they romance lacks tension.
(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
November 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 How can you convince someone to love you when you can't love yourself? Last year Harper's best friend became her boyfriend, only to become her ex. But now that Declan is back from boarding school for the summer, it seems like there's hope of getting their friendship back, but she doesn't dare hope for more. Though a childhood friendship taking an unwise romantic turn is a familiar YA story, Martin does a great job of making Declan and Harper's friendship seem genuine. Her frequent use of childhood flashbacks to establish romantic tension is similar to Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2014) and E. Lockhart's We Were Liars (2014). She also deftly handles the emotions of a teenage girl who uses casual hookups as an escape. A subplot related to her mother's cancer comes off as contrived and an overly convenient reason for Harper's life's too short mentality. Martin's debut is a solid, nuanced love story that's main failing is taking on too much within one narrative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)