(4) YA After her drug-addicted mother goes to jail, sixteen-year-old Elle Zoellner's long-absent, hotel-mogul Japanese father brings her to Tokyo, where she attends an elite international school. Elle struggles with cultural differences, getting to know her aloof father, and falling for decidedly uncool fellow student Ryuu. The chock-full-of-privilege-and-power plot is trendy (think Crazy Rich Asians) and entertaining in a soap-opera sense.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) YA Eighteen-year-old twins Sam and Ilsa each invite three surprise guests to a final dinner party at their grandmother's soon-to-be-sold apartment. In this fifth collaboration, Cohn and Levithan revisit their tried-and-true formula--NYC setting, two teens alternating narration--but with less success. This novel is too talky and gratuitously over-the-top (there's a snarky sock puppet guest), detracting from its thought-provoking musings on identity and relationships, hopes and fears.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(4) YA Victoria Navarro's BFFs are dispersing come graduation, and Happies, a beloved restaurant in their California desert hometown, is shutting its doors. A final, epic party--ideally, a bash that affronts Vic's nemesis and scores Vic a hookup with her crush--feels only fitting. A light and diverting read heavy on contrivance; instances of stereotyping undermine the inclusive nature of the novel's quirky cast.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(3) YA It's been a year since teens Dash and Lily fell in love (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares). Now it's Christmastime; Grandpa's heart attack has put Lily in a bah-humbug mood, so it's up to Dash to provide holiday cheer. This sequel offers lighthearted moments, but the stakes are higher now, as Lily contemplates mortality, change, and what it means to love and be loved.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2016

(4) YA In this sequel to Beta, Cohn's intriguing futuristic question--"What happens when a teenage girl meets her clone?"--doesn't quite get the payoff it deserves. While the clones (a.k.a. Emergents) plot a rebellion against the humans on Demesne, Zhara is preoccupied with romantic relationships; ditto for Elysia, her clone. That said, Cohn's world-building is still remarkably strong here.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(2) YA Purchased as a surrogate daughter for the governor's wife, clone Elysia lives a privileged life. But as she navigates her way through life as a teenager and a clone, Elysia mulls over why words like insurrection aren't in her language database. While the writing can be uneven, Cohn's sci-fi coming-of-age story is riveting, and the sense of place she's crafted is remarkably potent.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2013

(2) YA Nineteen-year-old Very (Veronica) LeFreak texts, Tweets, and dreams up new playlists 24/7, leaving little time for her freshman-year responsibilities at Columbia. In therapy, Very realizes her addiction to technology is her way of crowding out difficult, painful issues (a rape, her mother's drug overdose). Cohn's portrayal of teen culture is spot on, and her writing, sharp and wired and LOL-funny, is fittingly addictive.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2010

(2) YA It's Christmastime, and sixteen-year-old Dash is in a very bah-humbug mood. His day brightens when he discovers a notebook with a tempting "DO YOU DARE?" title. Dash and Lily, the book's owner, swap the journal (and narration) back and forth for an "epistolary flirtation." Cohn and Levithan's talent for creating authentic teenage characters in all their messy glory is proven once again.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2011

(3) YA Seventeen-year-old Miles's cousin, Laura, overdoses on prescription drugs. An overweight underachiever, Miles experiences her own downward spiral of grief, depression, and drug abuse. Ultimately, though, she proves to be a survivor. Strong character development and an unflinching look at teen suicide set this story apart from similar books dealing with the subject.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) YA In her brash, idiosyncratic teenspeak, eighteen-year-old Cyd Charisse, or "CC" (Gingerbread, Shrimp), narrates her attempt to adjust to her new semi-independent existence, having traded West Coast for East. CC's oversized personality doesn't leave much room for the other characters to develop. Still, fans will appreciate the romantic tension: will CC follow her man or is she a "New York hypergrrl for sure"?

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2007

(3) YA Naomi isn't about to let her best friend Ely's revelation that he's gay change her happily-ever-after perception of their romantic possibilities. But when Ely kisses Naomi's boyfriend, the ensuing rift takes them both by surprise. In alternating voices, the New York hipster characters probe the complexities of friendship, love, betrayal, and the gray areas in between.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross

(2) YA This sequel to Gingerbread reveals that "recovering hellion" Cyd Charisse and her "one true love" each need to do a little more self-discovery before riding that wave into the sunset. Cyd's first-person narrative is a little overstuffed, but fans of her opinionated, rebellious voice, balanced by just the right amount of humanizing vulnerability, will drink in this continuation of her story.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005

(4) YA "Discovered" while working at a Dairy Queen, fifteen-year-old Wonder produces a demo, records an album, and goes on tour--all while grieving for her older sister, who died two years earlier just before signing her own record deal. The behind-the-scenes look at the making of a pop star will attract readers, but the novel lacks substance.

Reviewer: Jeannine M. Chapman

(2) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Annabel travels to Australia to meet her father's new wife and kids, all of whom she resents for "stealing" her father. The story is predictable but packed with humorous incident, life lessons learned, and a litany of preteen-girl touchstones--self-image, friendships, pop culture, etc. Great literature this is not, but it is exactly attuned to its audience; girls will clamor for more.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2003

(4) YA Coming to terms with a recent abortion while still holding tight to her ragdoll, sixteen-year-old Cyd is kicked out of her boarding school and eased out of her mother and stepfather's fancy San Francisco home before landing in the Manhattan apartment of the biological father she barely knows. Like its heroine, this coming-of-age story is smart-mouthed and testy, sometimes a little too determinedly hip but ultimately appealing.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn