About the Book
Acclaimed writer Margo Rabb's Kissing in America is "a wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence, and the inner lives of girls," raves internationally bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love).
In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels--118 of them, to be exact--to dull the pain of her loss that's still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who can relate to Eva's grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California with barely any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness--and, perhaps, her first shot at real love--Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love.
In this honest and emotional journey that National Book Award Finalist Sara Zarr calls "gorgeous, funny, and joyous," readers will experience the highs of infatuation and the lows of heartache as Eva contends with love in all of its forms.
Since publication, this novel received 4 starred reviews and has been named:
A Chicago Public Library Best Teen Book of 2015A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens 2015A Miami Herald Best Book of the YearA Spirit of Texas selectionA TAYSHAS High School Reading List SelectionAn Oprah Summer Reading List selectionA Junior Library Guild selectionAn Amazon Best Book of the MonthA Publisher's Lunch 2015 Buzz Book for Young Adults
About the Author :
Margo Rabb is an acclaimed novelist whose debut, Cures for Heartbreak, was hailed by critics and young readers alike. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Rumpus, Zoetrope: All-Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, and One Story, and have been broadcast on NPR. She received the grand prize in the Zoetrope short story contest, first prize in the Atlantic fiction contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award. Margo grew up in Queens, New York, and has lived in Texas, Arizona, and the Midwest; she now lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two children.
Laura Knight Keating, an Audie Award-winning narrator, is an actress who has appeared on stage, in films, and on television shows, including Boardwalk Empire, Hope and Faith, and Lipstick Jungle.
Review :
Kissing in America is a road-trip story with humor and heart.
-- "Boston Globe"
Hearing Laura Knight Keating give voice to this passionate story of love, loss, and growing up is an experience, regardless of the listener's age...Keating provides wonderfully irreverent narration in all the right places while maintaining the underlying poignancy of a story laden with painful emotions. How Keating says the word what . . . when Eve is surprised carries a paragraph of vocal meaning on its own. And the voice Keating uses for Eve's 'Aunt Gonorrhea' is hysterical...Keating's timing couldn't be better.
-- "AudioFile"
Humor and depth...Often entertainingly snarky.
-- "Horn Book"
Rabb eloquently gets grief right in this compassionate, perceptive, and poignant story, deftly leavened with irreverent humor...Love is really what this remarkable story is all about. Wise, inspiring, and ultimately uplifting-not to be missed.
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
Rabb's funny and big-hearted second novel is bursting with resonant themes of love, death, family, art, and identity, fully embodied in a diverse cast of wonderfully fallible and entertaining characters.
-- "New York Times Book Review"
This feminist rom-com reminds us it's never about the boy but the joyride.
-- "O, The Oprah Magazine"
With a full cast of multidimensional characters, this novel explores the complex nature of relationships and the many faces of grief and love with equal parts humor and poignancy. Verdict: A first purchase for most YA collections.
-- "School Library Journal"
