Forest's charming rom-com thrillingly features Black teens front and center, offering a fun romp that poignantly demonstrates that Black characters can occupy roles outside of trauma narratives and shine as subjects of swoon-worthy romances. Eighteen-year-old Evie is a Hollywood actress on track to reach mega stardom, like her grandmother Gigi. However, when a scandal leads to Evie being blacklisted, she makes a desperate bid to wiggle her way back into Hollywood's good graces by presenting her beloved celebrity grandmother an honorary award. Unfortunately, Gigi goes missing before Evie can execute her scheme. It's now up to Evie to search New York City to find Gigi and hopefully save her career in the process. This quest becomes a meet-cute after Evie seeks the help of the last person to cross paths with Gigi: a cute delivery boy and aspiring musician. With its light air of mystery and burgeoning romance, this novel delivers authentic teens, a riveting plot, and a lush world that grips readers from beginning to end.

When an aspiring actress wrecks her big shot, she needs her grandmother's help to salvage her career.Right before high school graduation, Evie Jones finally gets her big break, and it's a starring role. But when her jealous best friend, who also auditioned for the part, posts a video of Evie impersonating the director, she is fired. Desperate to continue her family's legacy-her parents are documentary filmmakers; her grandmother Gigi is a legendary actress-Evie makes a deal with her grandmother's least favorite person, James Jenkins, who is Gigi's ex-husband and Evie's former stepgrandfather. The former couple co-starred in a film that became a cult classic, and he wants to remake it, but without her grandmother's approval, he won't cast Evie as the female lead. When Gigi disappears, Evie enlists her grandmother's handsome, 19-year-old musician friend Milo to help find her before time runs out on her comeback opportunity. Evie's character development is slow, and she comes off as self-centered for most of the book; Milo, by contrast, stands out, and readers may be disappointed that more time isn't spent on him and his hilarious, quirky friends. The pacing is also off, with the most interesting action packed into the final chapters, but the novel is a light, sincere look at parental expectations and artists' dreams. The main characters are black, and there is a diverse cast of supporting characters.Predictable but pleasant, with a swoonworthy ending straight out of the movies. (Fiction. 14-18)