Secret Heart

by La Grande Sophie

Overview

 Avery Jennings is a punk-rock guitarist with a secret weakness for rom-coms and Taylor Swift. Her band, Detonate the Gazelle is ready to move to Austin after graduation, but Avery is having second thoughts. She’s fallen hard for Madison Shea, student council president with a douchebag boyfriend, after their orbits collide at Oak Bluff High’s inaugural Gay-Straight Alliance meeting. Even though it goes against her rules about crushing on straight girls, Avery relentlessly pursues Madison. Their chemistry is too magnetic to deny and soon they are making out in car washes and school bathrooms and holding hands under tables.  Avery wants to take their relationship public but Madison is afraid of her conservative family’s reaction and that it’ll ruin her chances as Prom Queen. Their secret relationship is put to the ultimate test when student council vetoes a proposal for a gay-friendly prom and the club decides to throw a free Unprom the same night as Prom with Detonate the Gazelle as the headliner. If Unprom proves to be more popular than Prom, Madison will hold it against her and Avery will lose her shot at taking her relationship with Madison public. What started off as a love song may have just turned into a breakup ballad. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997765908
Publisher:	Danielle Dreger-Babbitt
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	247,226
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Danielle wears many (baseball) hats. By day she is a teen librarian north of Seattle, by night she is an amateur cook, and by sunrise she is a YA writer of gritty and witty stories set in the humid hell of Central Florida. Danielle spent her formative years in the Tampa Bay Area driving into neighborhood signs, breaking curfew, and writing bad poetry (some of which can be seen on her blog) before moving to Boston to become a librarian. She now hangs her Tampa Bay Rays hat in Seattle. Danielle is also a rabid baseball fan, lazy gardener, occasional swimmer, and voracious reader. Coffee is her vice and sleeping is her superpower. When not doing any of the above, Danielle is chasing around her badly behaved dogs Lola and Mae West and her tiny toddler tornado, BB. Before devoting her professional life to writing and reading and libraries, Danielle worked as a secretary, florist assistant, camp counselor, college radio DJ and station manager, bookseller, house cleaner, blogger, and travel writer. She was previously the Seattle Books Examiner for Examiner.com and is a current contributor to Preemie Babies 101, the official blog for Hand to Hold. Secret Heart is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

"A gutsy, heartfelt, new twist on the Prom love story. You'll root for Avery &Madison the whole way through."- G.G. Silverman, author of Vegan Teenage Zombie Huntress.

"A well-constructed...foray into the world of high school dating."
"Well-rounded" "Believable"
For "...teen readers who enjoy romances"- Kirkus Indie Review, November 22nd 2016

From the Publisher

2016-11-18
A high school musician embarks on a rocky relationship in this debut YA romance. Avery Jennings, an out lesbian, faces big decisions in her senior year of high school, such as whether to participate in the school's new Gay-Straight Alliance club, whether to go to the prom, and whether to move to Austin after graduation with her punk band, Detonate the Gazelle. But her biggest worry is her growing attraction to Madison, a popular, apparently straight girl who's dating one of the school's biggest bullies, and who also acts as a liaison between the student council and the Lion Pride alliance club. Avery isn't good at hiding her feelings, but after a few embarrassing missteps, she realizes that Madison is also attracted to her; she's just not ready to let the secret out yet. The two girls' relationship is further hampered by Avery's jealousy and uncertainty about the future and Madison's fear of what others will think, but if they can overcome their concerns about being together, they could end up uniting the school in a brand-new way. They figure out their feelings to a playlist of rock and punk songs, compiled in a list for readers at the end. Most of the characters in this book are well-rounded and believable, and teenage readers who enjoy romances will likely find it entertaining. But no one who's ever seen a rom-com, like the ones that Avery and her friend Scott like to watch (including the fictional Arbor Day, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper), will be surprised by any plot points or lines of dialogue here. Aside from the fact that the two main players are both women, the story is often formulaic and clichéd. For example, as always in high school dramas, adults play no part in the events, except for a few scenes in which Avery's mom shows up to say things such as "Good luck at your show." A well-constructed but generic foray into the world of high school dating.

Kirkus Reviews