Sam wants a boyfriend. But having exhausted all known possibilities (specifically his ex-boyfriend and now best friend, Landon), he feels like he’s out of options. Maybe, he muses, he should give up on love entirely and focus on his creative writing instead.

When his other best friend Meg, a practicing Wiccan, suggests a love spell, a skeptical Sam decides to give it a try. He composes a “Perfect Ten” list of the top 10 characteristics he wants in a beau and burns the list at midnight in a spooky cemetery ceremony.

Enter a parade of prospects, including a sexy French exchange student, a quiet and intense painter, a just slightly dangerous lead guitarist . . . and Landon, who wants another chance. Could any—or all—of these suitors be Sam’s Perfect Ten? Or is the whole idea of a Perfect Ten list the wrong way to think about finding the right guy in the first place?

Rather than being an angst-ridden story about coming out, Perfect Ten is a romantic comedy that happens to be about boys dating boys. Don’t think too much about where the line falls between realism and campy wish-fulfillment here: Like its literary godparent Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, the point of L. Philips’ lighthearted story isn’t to reflect reality so much as to enhance it. A fun, sweet and sexy summer read for anyone who’s ever sought (and maybe even found) that special person, perfect or not.

BookPage Teen Top Pick, June 2017

A teenager gets a blast from her past as she faces the future in Jodi Lynn Anderson’s latest novel, Midnight at the Electric.

The year is 2065. Sixteen-year-old Adri Ortiz has been chosen to join a group of young scientists who will be living and working on Mars. As an only child who was orphaned at an early age, Adri is surprised to learn that her distant cousin, 107-year-old Lily Vega, would love to have her stay in her Kansas home during Adri’s three months of training for the mission. Adri is skeptical about her relationship with this kindly old woman until she finds a journal and letters from more than a century ago.

Anderson divides her plot into sections, contrasting Adri’s life against the lives of two women from different eras: Cathy Godspeed, who experienced both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, and Lenore Allstock, who lived during the aftermath of World War I. Although completely engrossed in Cathy’s journal entries and Lenore’s letters, Adri doesn’t anticipate the impact these women will make on her own life.

Although Adri is a talented, burgeoning scientist, she can often be apathetic. But Anderson plops her protagonist into emotional, three-dimensional stories that expand her heart and connect her to her lineage. Anderson seamlessly shifts between all three narratives as she connects the dots and draws her audience into an engaging, inventive story. This charming coming-of-age tale will have readers hooked from beginning to end.

This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Mina was born in Afghanistan. Her tragic story begins when her father is gunned down in their home, leaving his small family no option but to flee. After a long, terrifying journey, Mina and her mother arrive in an Australian detention camp. It takes years for them to build a life in Western Sydney, a place both lauded and feared for its vibrant commingling of cultures.

Michael is the son of parents deeply invested in the Aussie Values movement. He has never really questioned their belief that Islamic refugees are terrorists bent on destroying “true” Australian culture. But then he meets beautiful, smart, hardworking Mina and loses his heart. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story for our times, infused with the insight of accomplished author Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Mina can barely remember Afghanistan, but her refugee experience separates her from her white peers. Like the United States, Australia is a nation of immigrants, which undermines claims by predominantly white-skinned people who cling to so-called intrinsic values. Antagonism against the refugees pits the Aussie Values organization against Mina’s family, leading to the outing of undocumented workers. Michael tries to help, but it becomes apparent that he must take bold action against his own family.

The current tide of Islamophobia is well integrated into The Lines We Cross, and the teen characters believably work through the fears and prejudices of family and society to find their own convictions. Abdel-Fattah offers young readers immeasurable perspective into a present-day crisis.

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

When Bannerman Prep invites Tanner McKay to leave his public school and join their world-class debate team, he sees it as his big chance to catch the eyes of Stanford recruiters and to set himself on the path to success. But when the debate teacher partners Tanner with “The Duke,” that clear-cut path no longer seems quite so straight and narrow.

The Duke is untouchable: He’s a straight-A student who rarely cracks a book; he’s adept at pulling strings and calling in favors; and he’s a notorious host of elaborate parties in the city. But the Duke isn’t all he seems, and soon his carefully crafted identity begins to unravel.

Katie A. Nelson’s debut novel, a contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, captures the glitz, glamour and mysterious emptiness of its predecessor with very few of the cheap winks and nudges so prevalent in modernizations. Though Nelson’s characters feel, at times, like incomplete renderings, she deftly recreates the high-stakes environment of an elite prep school as well as the fierce competition for social status that will feel familiar to any young reader.

The high-pressure world of Bannerman Prep, the intrigue of Tanner and the Duke’s strange friendship and the lavish social scene all harken back to Fitzgerald’s classic but stand on their own in this compelling new novel.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Alice lost both parents when she was 9 years old. She was forced to move from San Francisco to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin Leo in Chicago. Nine years have passed since then; Alice and Leo are now inseparable and have brought fellow classmate Teddy into their fold. While Alice secretly harbors a crush on Teddy, she’s too afraid to let him know. On Teddy’s 18th birthday, Alice decides to play the odds and buys him a lottery ticket, and miraculously he wins. Teddy, also no stranger to hardships, gladly accepts his prize. He goes on spending sprees and enjoys his newfound fame, owing it all to Alice. But when he offers Alice a portion of the winnings, she declines, and a chasm opens between the two.

Jennifer E. Smith’s latest novel will have readers laughing out loud as often as wiping away tears. Alice is easy to fall in love with, from her courage in dealing with her parents’ deaths to insisting on making decisions on her own terms and her ability to adapt when things don’t go as planned. With a tight set of characters, complete with realistic relationships and issues, Windfall fearlessly explores the impact of wealth, particularly when it is sprung on a teen. Smith pulls at readers’ heartstrings as Alice, Teddy and Leo struggle to find themselves in the midst of the unexpected.

A novel with crossover appeal, Windfall is an excellent choice for older teens to read with parents or mentors.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

“We all have a deep desire, a deep need, to ignore what is happening here,” writes Marcus Sedgwick midway through Saint Death. Sedgwick, who sets his new novel amid the violent borderlands of Juarez, Mexico, might be describing human migration or death itself, embodied in this story by the mystical appearance—both literal and figurative—of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death. Either way, Sedgwick’s latest novel forces readers to look at what’s happening in regions of Mexico, and at the pressures that have created the drug cartels, which are provoked by U.S. demand and, in many cases, armed by the U.S., too.

Caught in the crosshairs of this volatile situation is a lonely young man, Arturo, a cardsharp who is enlisted to help save the life of his old friend Faustino—but who finds himself in a bargain he has no real way to win.

With Saint Death, Sedgwick offers a timely story that often reads like a thriller—or like a fable. Suffused with elements of magical realism and informed by real-world facts and statistics, Sedgwick’s narrative is remarkably immersive, providing both context and a human face for an issue that too often remains abstract but that, as he suggests, cannot be ignored.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Jordan Sun is a Chinese-­American junior at elite arts-­focused boarding school Kensington-Blaine, but she doesn’t have much to show for it. Her first years were spent wrapped up in an intense relationship that ended badly, so she has no close friends to lean on when she fails, yet again, to get a callback for a musical. As a theater student on scholarship, Jordan feels extra pressure to prove to her parents that Kensington is worth it, but her low singing voice keeps her from landing traditional female musical roles. Dejected and isolated, Jordan notices an open call for a tenor in the Sharpshooters, Kensington’s top all-boy a cappella group. Jordan is determined to find a place at school, even if it means months of deception and possibly extreme consequences. But life as Julian—the male alter ego she adopts for the Sharpshooters—is freeing in a way Jordan never expected, despite the complications.

Riley Redgate tackles big topics in her second novel, as Jordan unpacks the complicated interplay between her class, gender and friendships. Jordan’s insights on femininity and masculinity are effective. However, the exploration of her sexuality, which is supposedly fluid or bisexual, feels incomplete, especially since the romantic angle unfolds traditionally. With an amusing plot reminiscent of familiar teen movies, Noteworthy is a solid, realistic YA novel with enough new notes to entertain even avid readers.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.