Kirkus A stranger comes to town, and a beloved storyteller plays this creative-writing standby for all it’s worth. Hilderbrand fans, a vast and devoted legion, will remember Blond Sharon, the notorious island gossip. In what is purportedly the last of the Nantucket novels, Blond Sharon decides to pursue her lifelong dream of fiction writing. In the collective opinion of the island—aka the “cobblestone telegraph”—she’s qualified. “Well, we think, she’s certainly demonstrated her keen interest in other people’s stories, the seedier and more salacious, the better.” Blond Sharon’s first assignment in her online creative writing class is to create a two-person character study, and Hilderbrand has her write up the two who arrive on the ferry in an opening scene of the book, using the same descriptors Hilderbrand has. Amusingly, the class is totally unimpressed. “‘I found it predictable,’ Willow said. ‘Like maybe Sharon used ChatGPT with the prompt “Write a character study about two women getting off the ferry, one prep and one punk.”’” Blond Sharon abandons these characters, but Hilderbrand thankfully does not. They are Kacy Kapenash, daughter of retiring police chief Ed Kapenash (the other swan song referred to by the title), and her new friend Coco Coyle, who has given up her bartending job in the Virgin Islands to become a “personal concierge” for the other strangers-who-have-come-to-town. These are the Richardsons, Bull and Leslee, a wild and wealthy couple who have purchased a $22 million beachfront property and plan to take Nantucket by storm. As the book opens, their house has burned down during an end-of-summer party on their yacht, and Coco is missing, feared both responsible for the fire and dead. Though it’s the last weekend of his tenure, Chief Ed refuses to let the incoming chief, Zara Washington, take this one over. The investigation goes forward in parallel with a review of the summer’s intrigues, love affairs, and festivities. Whatever else you can say about Leslee Richardson, she knows how to throw a party, and Hilderbrand is just the writer to design her invitations, menus, themes, playlists, and outfits. And that hot tub! Though Hilderbrand threatens to kill all our darlings with this last laugh, her acknowledgments say it’s just “for now.” Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly Hilderbrand closes out her long run of Nantucket novels (after The Five-Star Weekend) with an engrossing story of three mysterious newcomers. Leslee and Bull Richardson arrive at the multimillion-dollar house they’ve just purchased on Nantucket with Coco, their live-in concierge. Coco, an aspiring writer, hopes to show her screenplay to Bull, a businessman who’s produced a couple of movies, and she landed the gig by lying about how well she knows the island. Larger-than-life Leslee throws lavish parties at the couple’s oceanfront house, but she increasingly rubs people the wrong way—women, especially—by flirting with men who are taken. By the end, as readers will know from a flash-forward opening, the Richardsons will be largely shunned, Coco will go missing, and their house will go up in flames. In chapters exploring Bull’s shady business dealings and Coco’s duplicity, Hilderbrand gradually teases out exactly what happens and why. Strong characterizations and delicious moments of tension make this a worthy note to end on. Readers will be riveted. Agents: David Forrer and Michael Carlisle, InkWell Management. (June)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Book list Nantucket Police Chief Ed Kapenash is days away from retirement when he gets a call: a house has burned down and a woman is missing. The house belongs to Bull and Leslee Richardson and the woman is their concierge, Coco, who fell (jumped? was pushed?) off their boat. The story then flashes back to the beginning of the chief's last summer, when the Richardsons arrive on the island, throwing their money and favors around. The story also belongs to Coco, who's not quite a grifter, but has her own reasons for working for the Richardsons. As the story alternates between the chief's late-August investigation and the events of the summer, readers learn how Nantucket soured on the Richardsons. Hilderbrand has promised this is her last Nantucket novel and she ends the series with a bang. There are plenty of Easter eggs for longtime fans, but even those diving in to her exquisite writing for the first time are in for a treat: a story that feels like it's being told over cocktails at the Oystercatcher, perfectly paced for maximum drama with characters you can't get enough of. This is aspirational escapism at its finest. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hilderbrand's final Nantucket novel will draw old and new readers out of the woodwork.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

School Library Journal PreS-Gr 2-In this picture book charmer, two insects spot a beautiful peach. They want to eat it, but a praying mantis announces that it is the last peach of the season. Another bug says it looks good, but it could be rotten inside. If they ate it, would they feel sick? The two main insects argue and debate, each one getting a different text font color to make the conversation parts clear. Is the peach magic? Should they share it with others? Perhaps write it an admiring poem? When they get into a physical fight over which one of them should claim it, they declare themselves unworthy, and then leave the peach alone. After they depart, the final image reveals a twist. The glowing orb they have been admiring is actually the sun, positioned so it appears to hang on a tree branch. The collage illustrations are made up of many different colors and types of paper that include words in French, while the end pages depict several varieties of peaches in a luscious photorealistic style. VERDICT Use with Du Iz Tak? and James and the Giant Peach to discuss conflict resolution or for a plant-themed storytime.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, -Richmond, VA © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Two motley insects contemplate eating the last peach of the season.Gordon presents children with a timeless, rather adult dilemma: how to act in the face of irresistible temptation. Here, two thumb-shaped flylike creaturesone dressed in a Homburg hat and blue-and-white-striped body suit, the other in a red print shirtencounter a sumptuous peach, rosy and golden as the setting sun, still on the branch, and begin to discuss its merits. "It's the most beautiful peach I've seen ALL summer," says the bug dressed in blue. "Wouldn't you agree?" "I do agree," responds the red-shirted friend: "In fact, it's the most beautiful peach I've seen in ALL the summers." The two quickly decide they "must eat that peach at once," but with one page turn, a venerable praying mantis, clad in top hat and cane, stops them, warning: "You can't eat that peach! It's the last peach of the season." In delightfully clever double-page spreads, the two friends then go back and forth, hilariously debating whether to devour the peach together or alone, to share it with others or to leave it entirely. Gordon's witty, collagelike mixed-media illustrations and spare, dialogue-only text not only get at the gnarly pit of indecisionserving up provocative behavioral binaries such as impulsivity versus reflection, indulgence versus sacrifice, hoarding versus sharingbut offer a surprise ending as well.Luscious, light, and thought-provoking: decidedly not to be missed! (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly This existential meditation by Gordon (Herman and Rosie) deals with some big questions. Two wide-eyed insects contemplate a red-orange globe that hangs suspended amid green leaves. "Oh my," one exclaims. "Now THAT is a fine peach!" They begin the discussion agreeably enough ("Let's eat it. At once!"), but as others weigh in ("You can't eat that peach!"), attitudes shift to anxiety ("We would probably... get big tummy aches"), then to fantasy ("What if we ate it and could suddenly do magical things?") before spiraling into frank conflict: "''That is MY peach!' 'No, it's MY peach!''" Gordon composes leafy collage-style spreads in paper accented with snippets of vintage French type. The insects bear more than a passing resemblance to the clowns in Beckett's Waiting for Godot; one has a hat and a curling proboscis, while the other sports antennae and a red schnozz. In the wistful ending, the two friends decide that the object of their desire is too beautiful to eat, denying themselves the pleasure they've been anticipating all along. And after they leave, another surprise awaits readers. Some desires, this sly fable suggests, may be founded on illusion. Ages 4-8. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Book list Do you dare to eat a peach? Certainly the endpapers of this book, which illustrate a variety of mouthwatering peaches, inspire one to do so. Two small, long-nosed insects contemplate the beauty of a particular peach (the very last one of the whole summer), which hangs on a tree above them. They decide they must eat it at once! But when a third green insect with top hat and cane arrives, he cries, Stop! You can't eat that peach! It's the last peach of the season. Hmm. Another tubby, winged character arrives, suggesting that the peach may be stinky and rotten on the inside. Ugh. Well, they could share the peach with all their friends . . . or one could keep it from the other and devour it. Suspense builds, and the magnificent peach remains hanging uneaten, to be admired for its beauty. Contrasting font colors make this a perfect read-aloud for more than one speaker. Collages of fragments of printed words in French, combined with artwork done in watercolor, crayon, and pencil, are surrounded by generous white space, which offsets the round, juicy, delectable peach and the somewhat wacky sartorial dress of the bug-eyed insects with humor and delight. The final surprise ending gives a subtle nod to the ephemeral nature of desire.--Lolly Gepson Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms

School Library Journal : K-Gr 6-As this story opens, French funambulist Philippe Petit is dancing across a tightrope tied between two trees to the delight of the passersby in Lower Manhattan. Gerstein places him in the middle of a balancing act, framed by the two unfinished World Trade Center towers when the idea hits: "He looked not at the towers, but at the space between them and thought, what a wonderful place to stretch a rope-." On August 7, 1974, Petit and three friends, posing as construction workers, began their evening ascent from the elevators to the remaining stairs with a 440-pound cable and equipment, prepared to carry out their clever but dangerous scheme to secure the wire. The pacing of the narrative is as masterful as the placement and quality of the oil-and-ink paintings. The interplay of a single sentence or view with a sequence of thoughts or panels builds to a riveting climax. A small, framed close-up of Petit's foot on the wire yields to two three-page foldouts of the walk. One captures his progress from above, the other from the perspective of a pedestrian. The vertiginous views paint the New York skyline in twinkling starlight and at breathtaking sunrise. Gerstein captures his subject's incredible determination, profound skill, and sheer joy. The final scene depicts transparent, cloud-filled skyscrapers, a man in their midst. With its graceful majesty and mythic overtones, this unique and uplifting book is at once a portrait of a larger-than-life individual and a memorial to the towers and the lives associated with them.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library

Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms

Book list Camille has just wrapped a successful summer with her theater troupe and is ready for a prestigious theater camp with her crush. Then one missed period becomes two, and Camille faces the truth: her first sexual encounter, a one-time thing, has led to pregnancy. Camille knows she can't have a baby now, but she doesn't want to involve her parents, and her best friend, Bea, can't reconcile her religious views with Camille's decision. Complicating the situation are Texas' prohibitive abortion laws: it's a year after Senator Wendy Davis' filibuster and Governor Rick Perry's restrictive bill. Desperate, Camille turns to Annabelle, a girl she admires but hardly knows, who offers to drive her to Mexico for pills that will induce an abortion. At the last minute, despite her reservations, Bea decides to come as well. Waller (The Forbidden Orchid, 2016) hammers home the immense difficulties that girls in Camille's situation face. The story occasionally has the unnerving feel of a dystopia, despite taking place in the recent past: Camille travels hundreds of miles, crosses into dangerous border towns, and faces the judgment of legal and medical professionals as well as people she knows. The narrative sometimes treads into the expository, but Camille's story is absolutely essential, as is the underlying message that girls take care of each other when no one else will.--Maggie Reagan Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

School Library Journal Gr 9 Up-This compelling novel opens with a stark and timely reminder of a woman's right to choose in June 2014, when there were only 19 abortion clinics left in Texas, a state which included five million women of reproductive age. Camille, ready to spend her summer at an advanced drama camp, is horrified to find herself pregnant from her first and only sexual encounter, and unwilling to give her future up for a baby with a boy she's never spoken to again. Knowing she would be disappointing her parents and unwilling to tell them, Camille tries repeatedly to solve her problem, before setting off with two friends determined to help her: Annabelle because she believes in the right to choose, and Bea because she is Camille's friend. Waller realistically depicts the 17-year-old's struggles to get an abortion, from ending up at a clinic where she's prayed over, with a doctor who won't do anything without parental consent, to facing a judge who won't bypass parental consent as he's sure he's doing what's best for her. This title offers realistic viewpoints on teenage pregnancy, along with what it is like to have the right to choose, wanting that right, and living knowing that you will be judged for having exercised it. An author's note details what inspired this personal story and additional information on Roe v. Wade. VERDICT A first purchase.-Betsy Fraser, -Calgary Public Library, Canada © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus A teenage girl struggles to get an abortion in Texas. White cisgender Texan Camille had her dream summer planned out, complete with a spot in a prestigious theater summer camp. After an underwhelming one-night stand (her first time having sex), however, Camille discovers she is pregnant and decides to get an abortion. Afraid to tell her parents, she secretly gives up her spot at camp and embarks on a road trip to the Mexican border to access an abortion-inducing drug. She's joined by a liberal feminist acquaintance and, reluctantly, her conservative best friend (both white), and together they journey to battle shame and misogyny and to find themselves. Set a year after Sen. Wendy Davis' historic 2013 filibuster, Camille's first-person, present-tense narrative alternates between her road trip and flashbacks to her previous experiences, including visiting a Christian crisis pregnancy center and attempting to obtain a judicial bypass, in hopes of getting an abortion without her parents' knowledge. While readers will come to care about the characters and their relationships to some degree, the important informational content takes precedence overall. Meant to "sound an alarm," Waller's (The Forbidden Orchid, 2016, etc.) book is highly informative, filled with frank, detailed descriptions of our nation's restrictions on reproductive health as well as the emotional and physical experiences of abortion.A Forever-esque story for reproductive justice, this is a timely and vital book. (author's note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list Camille has just wrapped a successful summer with her theater troupe and is ready for a prestigious theater camp with her crush. Then one missed period becomes two, and Camille faces the truth: her first sexual encounter, a one-time thing, has led to pregnancy. Camille knows she can't have a baby now, but she doesn't want to involve her parents, and her best friend, Bea, can't reconcile her religious views with Camille's decision. Complicating the situation are Texas' prohibitive abortion laws: it's a year after Senator Wendy Davis' filibuster and Governor Rick Perry's restrictive bill. Desperate, Camille turns to Annabelle, a girl she admires but hardly knows, who offers to drive her to Mexico for pills that will induce an abortion. At the last minute, despite her reservations, Bea decides to come as well. Waller (The Forbidden Orchid, 2016) hammers home the immense difficulties that girls in Camille's situation face. The story occasionally has the unnerving feel of a dystopia, despite taking place in the recent past: Camille travels hundreds of miles, crosses into dangerous border towns, and faces the judgment of legal and medical professionals as well as people she knows. The narrative sometimes treads into the expository, but Camille's story is absolutely essential, as is the underlying message that girls take care of each other when no one else will.--Maggie Reagan Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

School Library Journal Gr 9 Up-This compelling novel opens with a stark and timely reminder of a woman's right to choose in June 2014, when there were only 19 abortion clinics left in Texas, a state which included five million women of reproductive age. Camille, ready to spend her summer at an advanced drama camp, is horrified to find herself pregnant from her first and only sexual encounter, and unwilling to give her future up for a baby with a boy she's never spoken to again. Knowing she would be disappointing her parents and unwilling to tell them, Camille tries repeatedly to solve her problem, before setting off with two friends determined to help her: Annabelle because she believes in the right to choose, and Bea because she is Camille's friend. Waller realistically depicts the 17-year-old's struggles to get an abortion, from ending up at a clinic where she's prayed over, with a doctor who won't do anything without parental consent, to facing a judge who won't bypass parental consent as he's sure he's doing what's best for her. This title offers realistic viewpoints on teenage pregnancy, along with what it is like to have the right to choose, wanting that right, and living knowing that you will be judged for having exercised it. An author's note details what inspired this personal story and additional information on Roe v. Wade. VERDICT A first purchase.-Betsy Fraser, -Calgary Public Library, Canada © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus A teenage girl struggles to get an abortion in Texas. White cisgender Texan Camille had her dream summer planned out, complete with a spot in a prestigious theater summer camp. After an underwhelming one-night stand (her first time having sex), however, Camille discovers she is pregnant and decides to get an abortion. Afraid to tell her parents, she secretly gives up her spot at camp and embarks on a road trip to the Mexican border to access an abortion-inducing drug. She's joined by a liberal feminist acquaintance and, reluctantly, her conservative best friend (both white), and together they journey to battle shame and misogyny and to find themselves. Set a year after Sen. Wendy Davis' historic 2013 filibuster, Camille's first-person, present-tense narrative alternates between her road trip and flashbacks to her previous experiences, including visiting a Christian crisis pregnancy center and attempting to obtain a judicial bypass, in hopes of getting an abortion without her parents' knowledge. While readers will come to care about the characters and their relationships to some degree, the important informational content takes precedence overall. Meant to "sound an alarm," Waller's (The Forbidden Orchid, 2016, etc.) book is highly informative, filled with frank, detailed descriptions of our nation's restrictions on reproductive health as well as the emotional and physical experiences of abortion.A Forever-esque story for reproductive justice, this is a timely and vital book. (author's note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.