Member Reviews
Life got in the way and I could not finish the book. Thanks to the publishers for the chance to read the book.
DNF @ 30%
This just wasn't for me. I went in hoping for a cute and fun little romcom, but it was just straight cheesy. That combined with the fact that the characters weren't well-developed and the slow plot made it so hard for me to read .There's also absolutely nothing original about it. The plot is the classic 'forbidden love ' trope, with the added “tragic” backstories to make it interesting. Orion and Ray also weren't particularly interesting characters- yes, Orion was pretty sweet, but was he interesting? NOPE. And although I liked Ray at the beginning, I feel like she went downhill from there and I ended up not being the biggest fan of her. Overall, this just wasn't interesting me
I received this Arc from Netgalley. Thank you for the chance to read this book early. My review is honest and 100% my own thoughts about the book.
I loved this bipod representation in a YA contemporary romance. It was uniquely told through Ray and Orions voices. It has all the vibes of a Romeo and Juliet retelling.
Orion is a swimmer with Olympic potential who at a young age has been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder. This has a great impact on how he connects and responds to other characters within the story. As well as a heart on this sleeve personality.
Ray on the other hand is wary o love and has a barrier up around her heart. She is very talented at poetry.
Their relationship is a slow go and definitely a emotional rollercoster. I love the sweetness pouring out of it.
I think this is such a cool concept for story telling and the story sounded really good and important, but I struggled with the blackout poetry elements and was unable to get into this book.
I wanted to enjoy this one, I did, but I didn’t connect with this story. The characters didn’t feel properly developed. The romance felt rushed and maybe forced? It was all just happening really quick to where I didn’t feel like I had a chance to get to know the character or get a feel for their romance before other things were being added into it.
For this to be a YA romance I thought both Ray and Orion had great levels of maturity. Their love felt mature and delicate and it was actually very heartwarming to read. The big plot twist in the big about what happened to Ray's father and who fell a bit flat and felt kind of forced. But overall I thought this was a cute YA romance with 2 main characters that were easy to root for.
This was so cute!! I really wished it wasn't steeped in tragedy, but it all came together in the end. Thank you
Random House Children's and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this lovely book.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced copy of this book to read.
This is a great companion novel for schools who implement Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in grades 7-9. Depending on reading levels, I can also see this being appropriate for LL readers in grade 10-11.
I really enjoyed this book! The story was really good and I loved the characters! I hope to read more by this author in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and to the author for the ARC!
This one was really cute and I enjoyed it. Would definitely recommend to those that like YA books similar to Blackout, etc.
I was on a Great Gatsby streak for awhile there and this book fit nicely into that streak. While it wasn't too Gatsbyish, it had great tie-ins.
What I loved: the found poetry and black out poetry. It's unique to have black out poetry intertwined with narrative and I LOVED IT! If I were still teaching high school, I would put this novel study between Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God. It would be the perfect contemporary bridge novel. I love the super cheesy romance between Ray and Orion too - it's a super cliche yet simply wonderful and tender high school romance story. The romance in it does make it PG13 - so I won't be using it with my middles. But if I were teaching high school...this would be my jam. It has some great potential for discussion with all the literary allusions and poetry and alternating points of view. I love that Orion is a swimmer and that Ray is an artist.
For all those who love the classics, this is a beautiful modern realistic fiction novel that alludes to the greats while being great itself. It's a slow build, but the buried family secrets make the ending worth the slow start.
I loved this book, the plot held me in really well, and I love that it was set in Memphis. Born and raised there, I enjoyed reading a book set in.
Let me first say that I loved the delivery! The flow and word choice made the story hard to put down. It made for an easy and quick read!
The characters were interesting and had great dialogue. Again, it just flowed very well. The ending was quite predictable, but was still enjoyable.
As a debut novel, this is pretty fantastic. I'm excited to see more from this author.
A gorgeously written, page-turning read exploring grief, passion, trust, forgiveness and relationships in their many forms. It's a story of first love appearing when you least expect or want it but can't bare to lose it and of heartbroken parents and the effects of such heartbreak on their children. It's a story filled with teens trying their best, the all-consuming fear and excitement of first love and brilliantly explored familial and romantic relationships.
I couldn't get enough of this book. It was emotional, adorable, heartbreaking, quick witted and has left me incredibly excited to see what Kelis Rowe writes in the future.
AMAZING!!! I wanted more once this book was done!! To say she's a first time author, she knew what to do!! Can't wait to read more!!
This is a cute love story between Ray and Orion, two teenagers who meet and quickly fall in love during a summer vacation.
There were parts of this story that I really enjoyed, for instance…references to night time radio host Delilah and the Crystal Palace Skating Rink. I also enjoyed how there wasn’t too much game playing or any toxicity between our main characters. I do wish the author would have dived in a little bit deeper in regards to the parent child relationships between Ray and her mother and Orion and his father.
Overall, this was a solid debut and I look forward to reading more from the author.
I found this more frustrating than compelling. It follows a familiar pattern: two teens with trauma who fall in love only to find that their trauma is shared in some way. There is no deviation from that pattern, no interesting twist. While there are some interesting elements in the skating and poetry, that's not enough to overcome the predictability.
I loved this book! In this we follow Ray(Jupiter) as she navigates her first feelings of love for Orion after not believing anything good can come of love with what happened to her father.
This was such a sweet YA romance but also had deeper topics to it as well. There was an air of mystery to it that kept me wanting to read faster to find out what was going on. I loved Ray as a character. She was very much your typical teenager but also went through some pretty crazy things very early in life which left her jaded about love. Orion was such a sweet guy! Going through his own things earlier in life, he falls for Ray pretty hard and has to try and navigate his own feelings of first love.
This is a debut novel for Kelis and I can definitely say I will pick up future books! This was a great read and I definitely recommend if you like YA Romance. It’s not light and fluffy though so know that going in!
Honestly the story didn’t grab my attentions. While I feel like it was well written, I couldn’t relate to the characters. I enjoyed Ray and Orion’s relationship. Finding Jupiter is told in alternating perspectives of the main character Ray and and Orion. book. I liked how Orion was the sensitive while Ray was a bit more protective of her emotions.