Emma Mills
Henry Holt & Co
Available October 4, 2016
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
When Sloane’s family moves from New York to Florida before her senior year, she doesn’t feel she’s left much behind. A party brings her within the gravitational field of Vera, a social media starlet, and Gabe, her intensely serious twin brother with a justice complex. Without meaning to, Sloane falls into twins’ social circle, and ever deeper into their lives. When a beloved painting by their late mother goes missing, Sloane makes secret plans to bring it back. This is a problem she can fix, she knows it.
At home, Sloane’s family begins to feel more and more fractured, and finding the painting, freeing the twins from their grief, becomes an all-consuming project for Sloane. Too soon she’s forced to ask the question she can’t bear to face. What happens if she can’t bring the painting home?
Earlier this year I read First & Then by Emma Mills, which totally charmed me. I still like it, and I was nervous but also excited about reading another book by this author, because once you have those high expectations, it can be really awful if the story doesn’t live up, you know?
Well. This one blew me away. I laughed. I bawled. I sneaked out of my room in the middle of the night (after my husband was like omg, would you please go to sleep??) because I could NOT rest until I knew the ending of the book.
This book is like a list of my favorite things. Witty dialogue. An emo boy (I know, but it’s really a thing.) A deep and surprising emotional journey. True friendships from unexpected places.
I love it with all the sweat of all the babies. (Nevermind. Just read it. You’ll understand.)
Vera and Gabe’s mom is from the Dominican Republic. One of their friends is Indian. Vera and her girlfriend are lesbians.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Sloane stops a bully from picking on another boy and makes a comment about him belonging at home masturbating alone. A couple boy-girl kisses. Vera dates a girl named Tash. The vampire TV show Sloane’s dad is obsessed with features two boys who are star-crossed lovers. Sloane reads a bit of racy fan fic. No details.
Spiritual Content
Sloane’s dad becomes obsessed with writing fan fic based on a TV show featuring vampires.
Violent Content
Boys get into a fist fight.
Drug Content
In the opening scene, Sloane is at a party where teens drink alcohol. Later, a drunk friend asks her to pick him up and give him a ride home.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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