Space opera mixed with resilience and determination in an upended world.
A gifted grad student is drawn into a rebellion that threatens her comfortable existence.
Morgan Enni lives on the most prosperous of the Stavenger space stations, but she doesn’t crave fancy possessions or long for excitement. She also doesn’t mind that she can’t work with æther since she lacks the gene-sense shared by most residents of Katla. Morgan just wants to convince the university to fund her research so she can work alone in her lab. Her investigation into the long-ago collapse of æther overlaps with the realm of politics, but Morgan’s not interested in the bizarre events that happened on Brannick Station (as covered in 2021’s Aetherbound). She’s just going to focus on her academic research, even if it disappoints all the people who want her to be politically involved. But when she returns from her fieldwork, politics finds her anyway. Banished from her precious laboratory, Morgan might as well join the rebellion, who’ll at least fund her research—her family secret is a currency too precious for the rebels to refuse her. Her discoveries about the æther cycle are useful to them, besides. Morgan, who’s comfortably asexual, also discovers her quiet desire for romance among the rebels. The storytelling is heavy on explanation and oddly emotionally distant, but this sequel about one girl’s rejection of an irritating destiny is chock-full of space battles and forms a solid companion to the series opener.
Space opera mixed with resilience and determination in an upended world. (Science fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781984816160
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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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