June 8, 2015
Sixteen-year-old Alma Garcia-Menendez is a brilliant girl from a loving Mexican family living in Georgia, part of a community of undocumented immigrants. Evan Roland is the privileged son of a socialite, the nephew of a powerful senator, and a friend to boys who think sexual assault is a game. It’s love at first sight for Alma and Evan, but the threat of deportation looms for Alma and everyone in her life, thanks to the efforts of Evan’s uncle. In this YA debut, immigration activist Marquardt knowledgably takes on the plight of undocumented families in the U.S., unspooling a biting critique of anti-immigration politics. As such, her storytelling can be didactic and her characters too neatly drawn as heroes or villains. Alma’s role as the damsel in
distress, with Evan as her rescuer, can get old, and a subplot related to sexual assault doesn’t get the space it needs. But readers seeking a star-crossed love story with a twist won’t be disappointed. Ages 13–up. Agent: Jita Fumich, Folio Literary Management.