Bex considers herself a rational, science-minded person. That's why she abandoned color in her art, turning instead to the grayscale realism of medical illustration. It's also why she is so hesitant to succumb to her intense attraction to Jack, the dashing boy she meets on the bus home from the gross anatomy lab where she is drawing cadavers. But Jack is both irresistible and persistent, and before long, Bex finds herself unable and unwilling to set aside her feelings. Jack, meanwhile, is secretly undertaking an illegal public art project, which is rooted in something far deeper than mere adrenaline. Bex and Jack's witty banter crackles, and while their growing relationship is earnest and communicative, it's also packed with teenage horniness, mostly, it's refreshing to note, from unabashedly lustful Bex, whose narrative is packed with precise anatomical terms. Though a subplot with Bex's estranged father feels tacked on, and her financial problems, which add a nice touch of realism, are solved altogether too easily, Bennett's swoon-worthy, sex-positive romance will nevertheless appeal to teens who prefer proudly unconventional protagonists.

Gr 9 Up-Beatrix is not a typical teen artist. Her specialty is anatomical drawing. She wants nothing more than the chance to get into the Willed Body facility at a San Francisco medical school to draw the cadavers, sure that her precise work will win her a scholarship in a museum-sponsored drawing competition. Being a medical illustrator is an ambition she works toward by clerking in a local organic market to save for college and help her divorced RN mom keep their household afloat. Stuck waiting for the late bus one day, Beatrix meets a mysterious and gorgeous boy. They connect at once, staring into each other's eyes while flirting on the bus, but when a can of gold spray paint rolls out of Jack's bag, she knows why he's nervous and who he is: a notorious street artist who leaves single words of graffiti around the city. It should turn her off that he appears to be trouble, but Jack turns all of Bex's buttons to ON, and he is just as smitten, tracking her down and wooing her, even as she comes to understand that the words he's painting have as much to do with family and secrets as they do with art. Characters are well wrought, and dialogue feels realistic as the two navigate their lives and a fledgling relationship with humor and frank talk about sex, parents, and art. VERDICT An appealingly realistic romance that will curl toes and inspire sighs. Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

High school senior Beatrice, nicknamed Bex, is a talented artist who wants desperately to gain access to the Willed Body Program in order to draw cadavers to enter a scholarship contest for medical drawings, against her mother's wishes. She meets Jack while on the late night bus after a cancelled appointment with the program director. Jack is both charismatic and mysterious; she suspects he may be the graffiti artist who creates beautifully drawn gold-painted words throughout San Francisco. Jack and Bex begin a relationship of harmless flirtation, and when Bex is finally invited to meet the program director, she wonders if Jack is involved since he seems to have a connection to the hospital.Bex and her brother are fiercely loyal to their mother, their father being absent from their lives for a long time, but they discover his side of the story in time to salvage a relationship with him. Readers discover that Jack's devotion to his mentally ill sister is behind his need to create graffiti and his father also just happens to be the mayor, which is the reason his sister is kept hidden away. There are many other colorful characters, including homeless Willy who hangs out near the hospital, friend to both Jack and Bex. Multiple issues are part of the novelconsequences of divorce, mental illness, romance, family secretsbut the book comes together and is believable and readable. This is recommended for 8th grade and above due to some sexual content.Rachel Axelrod.