Publishers Weekly
02/27/2023
A secretly prophetic teen and a dyslexic lifeguard, both 17 and white-cued, navigate first love amid rapidly unfolding events in this speculative romance from Smith (The Half-Orphan’s Handbook) that’s reminiscent of The Butterfly Effect. Nick Irving, a lifeguard at a public Boston pool, inexplicably panics when a patron becomes unresponsive. December Jones, who has preternatural access to everybody’s memories and futures, intervenes, rescuing the man and inadvertently rewriting the future of every person in attendance, including Nick, whose death she foretells. When a local newspaper claims that Nick single-handedly rescued the pool-goer, he insists that December come forward. She agrees, but only in exchange for helping her locate her mother, who abandoned December when she was seven. Despite her gift, her mom’s whereabouts are December’s only blank spot. While Nick’s efforts initially prove fruitless, he eventually unravels the truth. Unbeknownst to the teens, however, their mission has unintended consequences with grave repercussions. The supernatural elements, and their connectivity with December’s mom’s disappearance and the teens’ developing relationship, don’t quite gel together. Nevertheless, Smith sensitively renders the duo’s complex internality through their magnetic alternating perspectives, which propel this romantic mystery at a gripping clip. Ages 14–up. (Apr.)
School Library Journal
07/01/2023
Gr 9 Up—An almost fatal incident at the community pool turns a typical summer's day into a temporal pivot point that upends two teenagers' lives. Nick, swim star and lifeguard, freezes when called upon to rescue a beloved high school teacher, so December uses her gift of pre-cognition to save Mr. Francis. This sets off a chain of events that December senses will ultimately lead to profound love and profound loss for both her and Nick—despite the fact that they are virtual strangers. As December seeks to move closer to Nick and to the experience of first love that she never thought could be hers, Nick seeks to solve the mystery of December's missing mother and come to terms with what it means to be a good person who sometimes makes bad choices in an uncertain world. Despite the magical elements introduced by December's "gift," this high-school romance does convey the real stresses and challenges of teen life in the modern age while simultaneously asking important questions about the nature of truth, the existence of free will, and the power of love. VERDICT This love-story-cum-fantasy set in our very real world is recommended for high school collections and will particularly appeal to readers who like their YA romance with a bit of a thriller vibe.—Kelly Kingrey-Edwards
Kirkus Reviews
2023-01-25
A girl with omniscient powers makes a misstep, changing the trajectory of her life and others’.
Lifeguard Nick freezes when Mr. Francis, a beloved high school biology teacher, falls unconscious in the pool. Mysterious new girl December steps in to save him—but she wasn’t supposed to. She broke the rules. December has the ability to know all that has ever happened and all that will happen, and disrupting the plan has serious implications. The last time December changed the preordained course of things, her mother disappeared. Now, she knows she was going to fall in love with Nick, but Nick was going to die. After Nick gets unwanted credit for rescuing Mr. Francis, he feels like a fraud and tries to get December to come forward about her role. In return, he agrees to try to find her mom. The novel is told through alternating first-person perspectives, and it thoughtfully integrates Nick’s dyslexia into his characterization. Even though December knows what is going to happen, she doesn’t know in advance how things will feel; her experiences of pleasure and pain are visceral. The conceit is mostly successful, though there is some need for suspension of disbelief about December’s inability to see what happened to her mother. However, the strong pacing and charismatic characters carry readers through. Nick and December are cued White.
An engaging love story exploring twists of fate. (Fiction. 12-17)
