Love, Canter, Action

Gr 9 Up–Nora’s mother died unexpectedly, and she’s forced to live with the father she’s never known and his wife. As the child of an extramarital affair, Nora finds the living situation awkward. Her future changes in an instant when the horse ranch she works at is sold. Knowing that Nora isn’t interested in college and wants to keep working with horses, the ranch’s owner pays for a horse-training program in Montana and sets Nora up with a job wrangling horses for a movie filming in town to cover the housing costs. While out to dinner with a friend, she’s accosted by a boy who’s angry at her and a picture of them is splashed all over social media. Turns out, Alec’s one of the movie stars, she’s supposed to be helping with the horses. The media attention is beneficial to Alec’s image, so he makes a deal with Nora—if she fake dates him to rehab his image, he’ll pay for her housing in Montana. This charming romance set in small-town Georgia deals with the aftermath of tragedy, grief, and picking up the pieces. Most of Nora’s life revolved around her mother, making it hard for her to trust anyone with her feelings. Keeping everything bottled up leads to drama when all the secrets eventually come to light. Nora’s adamant that she’s not going to college, which is not often portrayed in an YA novel. Romance tropes include fake dating, Hollywood stories, and enemies-to-lovers. Characters cue as white.