How to Make a Wish

March 20, 2017
If 17-year-old piano prodigy Grace’s only problem were her upcoming audition for the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, her life would be simple. But that’s far from the case. Her alcoholic and unstable mother, Maggie, has never fully recovered from the death of Grace’s father 15 years earlier, and she can’t hold a job or home long enough for Grace to feel safe. When Grace meets Eva on the beach, the attraction is instant. But as Grace learns about Eva’s tragic past and watches her mother forge a friendship with Eva built on grief, Grace’s tenuously constructed world begins to crumble as her mother sets her up to fail, both consciously and unconsciously. Blake (Suffer Love) skillfully assembles a complex story about the wonders of first love while exploring challenges all teenagers face, such as growing up and gaining independence. Blake allows her characters to make mistakes and reach their own conclusions without passing judgments on them, in a story written with realism and sensitivity. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rebecca Podos, Rees Literary.

February 15, 2017
The indelible impact parents can make is at the heart of this relationship-driven coming-of-age novel. Grace's father died in Afghanistan, and her mother is physically present but emotionally immature and manipulative. Her best friend, Luca, was abandoned by his father, leaving his mother to hold things together for her own family as well as others'. Eva has never met her father and is struggling with grief in the wake of her mother's sudden death. A talented ballerina, Eva relocates from New York City to live with Luca and his mother, her late mother's best friend, in their small New England seaside town. She and Grace form an intense friendship that blossoms into romance. Both girls easily accept their sexuality--Eva is lesbian and Grace bisexual--as do those around them. Issues of race are naturally woven into the backdrop rather than acting as a focal point of the story, with all major characters being white apart from mixed-race Eva, whose mother was black and father is white. Blake paints a realistic portrait of Grace, a gifted young pianist who must come to terms with her deep love for an alcoholic fantasist of a mother who engages in endless irresponsible liaisons with men and sabotages her daughter's dream of attending a Manhattan conservatory. Despite the heavy topics addressed, the story never feels hopeless or depressing, as the author writes with nuance and care about her cast of admirably strong, loyal, and resilient teens who face head on the challenges life throws at them. (Fiction. 14-18)

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February 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-For Grace, moving in with yet another of her mom's boyfriends wouldn't be so bad, but living with the one who previously made her life miserable? That's the last straw. Grace is looking for escape from the confines of her small-town life in her mother's chaotic shadow, and she finds it late at night talking to Eva. So when Grace's mom starts to horn in on Eva's own grief, Grace has to untangle her long-held feelings for her mom from her new feelings for Eva. Blake offers a painful glimpse of life with a narcissistic, alcoholic parent and a sensitive look at the complexities of grief and a growing relationship between two young women. Grace and Eva's immediate attraction and slow-building romance are well drawn, as is the way that Grace's mom's chaos intrudes on everything. Also deftly handled are the characters' multiple views of Grace's situation, all conveyed while still emphasizing Grace's perspective, which is so narrowly focused that she isn't able to pick up on the genuine concern of others. Grace is also confident in her bisexuality, and the text is clear that her more intense feelings for Eva are not due to a discovery that she is really a lesbian-a common trope that dismisses bisexuality. Eva is black, and her racial identity and how it affects her integration into both the worlds of ballet and a small New England town are less developed themes.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Grace wants nothing more than to spend her summer at home in Cape Katherine, focusing on her upcoming audition for the Manhattan School of Music and working alongside her best friend at LuMac's Diner. However, when Grace returns from a piano workshop in Boston, she finds that her unpredictable and needy mother, Maggie, has uprooted their lives again. This time, Maggie has sold Grace's piano and moved them in with Maggie's latest love and his teenage son. But then Grace meets Eva, a dancer from New York City who recently lost her much-loved mother. One night, Eva climbs through Grace's window, opening a world of stolen time together. When Eva reveals that she likes girls, Grace's world expands even more, allowing her to freely experience feelings she always questioned. This organic, moving romance juxtaposed with a messy, complex mother-daughter relationship is passionately told, with glimpses of optimism appearing through Grace's unshakeable bonds of loyalty. Blake clearly illustrates the impact of adult decisions that disregard the lives of teens, guaranteeing an emotional and relevant read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Grace's mother Maggie is wild, unpredictable, and temperamental. All Grace wants to do this summer is work without her mother stealing her tips; practice for her piano audition in New York; and spend time with Eva, a new friend who turns into something more. And caring for Maggie has become a task too great for Grace to bear. Emotionally resonant without being melodramatic.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)