Margo Rabb (Kissing in America) paints a multi-layered portrait of the ways in which love makes human beings myopic.
Sixteen-year-old Eva's father died in a plane crash two years ago, and a wall went up between her and her mother. Eva needs to talk about him; her mother wants to pretend he didn't exist. Eva reads one romance novel after another; her mother is a professor of women's studies at Queens College ("That happiness only comes from romantic love is the biggest myth of our society," she tells Eva). Then real romance enters Eva's life. Will comes into the tutoring center for help and is assigned to Eva. "He had dark, wavy, unkempt hair like... all the wind-blown men on my romance novel covers." But he also carries books by Baldwin, Heller and Vonnegut. And always has a beautiful girl waiting for him after the tutoring sessions. Readers will get the picture before Eva does. But that doesn't stop her from plotting to travel to California when Will goes there to live with his father. Her ticket is her best friend, Annie, qualifying as a contestant for a California quiz show with a $200,000 prize.
Eva and Annie's banter carries the novel, along with their witty observations on their cross-country road trip. Eva's relationship with her mother's friend Lulu is also a high point. Rabb's ambitious novel takes a couple twists toward the end that feel rushed, but the conclusion offers hope for Eva and her mother to have a more open, honest relationship. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness