Twelve-year-old Cedar Lee of Iron Creek, Utah, knows she shouldn't call people names, partly because she's Chinese American and has been on the receiving end of that, but mostly because she had a special-needs brother who never quite meshed with the world. But that doesn't keep her from spotting a happy-looking boy cyclist wearing a ruffly blouse and feathered hat and thinking: "Nerd-on-a-Bike."
Cedar is curious about the boy, fortunately, because following him leads her to Summerlost, a local Shakespeare festival... which explains the boy's costume and proves to be an excellent distraction for a girl who is mourning the deaths of her father and brother. She learns that "Nerd-on-a-Bike" is actually a charming, good-hearted boy named Leo Bishop who's obsessed with the legendary late actress Lisette Chamberlain. Leo ropes Cedar into his money-making venture as a tour guide for Lisette's superfans, and while he shares his big dreams with Cedar, he helps her realize she has big dreams, too. With a particularly clean and engaging style, Ally Condie (the Matched trilogy, Atlantia) does a splendid job of balancing Cedar's grief and her need to move on.
Threads of mystery wind through the story as well, giving Summerlost a dreamy, haunting quality. As Leo and Cedar try to unravel questions surrounding Lisette's premature death, Cedar wonders if the gifts that keep appearing on her window sill are from Lisette's ghost. Or maybe from Leo? What matters in the end is that Cedar starts to glimpse a fascinating world beyond her heartbreak and finds a true-blue soulmate in Leo. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness