Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young treat readers to an intriguing dilemma in this well-realized guessing game about fate.
Caroline Cabot has lived with her grandmother since her parents' nasty divorce when she was 12. Now Gram lies in a hospice, dying of cancer and compromised by a stroke, and Caroline must deal with all the difficult family issues she left behind--including a nasty relationship with her sister and a reputation for running when things get tough. When Caroline's best friend entices her with a party across town, Caroline must decide whether to leave for a few hours "to get away from it all," or whether to stay by Gram's bedside, in case Gram wakes up one last time.
Now, Caroline's narrative diverges, and readers follow alternating chapters of Caroline's two choices: what happens if she remains at Gram's bedside, and what happens if she leaves and goes to the party. In the first scenario, Caroline gets to bond with her sister, and somehow manages to catch the eye of longtime crush Joel. In the other, Caroline misses her grandmother's last moments, makes her family situation much, much worse, but somehow manages to begin something new with an extremely cute college boy. Both paths seem to lead in very different directions. But no matter what she chooses, Caroline is still the same person. Can one decision possibly change the course of her entire life?
This believable dilemma, and Caroline's potential choices, coalesce into a very strong novel. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators