The Holloway Girls

April 1, 2022
Remy struggles with the consequences of a bad kissing season. Holloway girls have magic running through their veins: During their kissing seasons, they can bestow good luck on certain individuals while potentially finding true love for themselves. However, they must follow the rules in the Book of Luck: Only kiss someone who wants to be kissed, and never kiss someone who's already in love with another. As her sister Maggie's kissing season ends and hers begins, Remy hopes she will finally have a chance with her crush, Isaac. However, when their kiss brings him a slew of bad luck, Remy struggles to break the curse, mend the growing rift with Maggie, ignore the abuse from Isaac's friends (who believe she cursed him), and avoid Tobin and Juliet, the charismatic and distracting twins who have moved in next door. While the kissing season's magic leads to slightly melodramatic scenarios, Remy and Maggie are sympathetic characters with a nuanced and evolving sisterly relationship. Similarly, the discussions of family, legacy, friendship, trust, baking as a coping mechanism, and self-image and self-esteem ground the story. While the pacing meanders, it fits the mood of the summer setting. The analysis of love, in the contexts of Holloway magic, crushes, romance, and abusive relationships, adds extra depth to a romance that may feel somewhat predictable. Most of the cast is White. An entertaining and drama-filled tale. (Fiction. 13-18)

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May 16, 2022
Like generations of Holloway girls before her, music-loving baker Remy Holloway enters her kissing season at 16, a year in which any boy she kisses will be blessed with good luck. But when longtime crush Isaac Fuller experiences a frightening fall immediately after they kiss, followed by a constant string of bad luck, Remy and her peers become convinced that she’s the first cursed Holloway. Heartbroken and angry, Remy pulls away from friends and family, and when new neighbors, twins Tobin and Juliet Curcio, individually express romantic interest in Remy, she hesitates. She swore off kissing for the remainder of her season, or at least until she can break the curse, and refuses to let her deepening feelings for Tobin shatter her resolve. Raising questions about consent, the narrative often disregards Remy’s desire to abstain from kissing despite the Holloways’ rule: “Both you and the person you kiss must do so willingly.” Though repetitive beats lower the stakes, Crispell’s (The Secret Ingredient of Wishes, for adults) YA debut handily encapsulates first love’s heady drama with a fanciful premise. Most characters cue as white. Ages 13–up. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency.

May 15, 2022
Grades 8-11 This lush tale, full of dramatic moments and themes of sisterhood, follows Remy and Maggie Holloway, sisters with an unusually specific kind of magic. They each have what's known as a kissing season, where they may at times bring luck to those they kiss--and maybe even find a romance of their own. However, they must follow the rules in the Book of Luck, which puts restrictions on who they can kiss. Remy Holloway is eagerly looking forward to her kissing season, when she will hopefully capture her crush, Isaac; but she is horrified when her kiss brings him bad luck instead of good. What follows is a series of events that offer lessons on self-esteem, which both sisters struggle with despite their magic. The story analyzes love and relationships in diverse settings, probing into the idea of true love, the all-consuming nature of a crush, and how some relationships can turn emotionally abusive or are simply not meant to be. Recommend this slow-burning story to readers who enjoy drama and complicated relationships.

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