Rules for Rule Breaking

Gr 9 Up–Bobby Bae and Winter Park are academic rivals who have been forced to be friendly towards each other all their lives. After Bobby’s girlfriend breaks up with him, the two are pushed into a college road trip together; Winter only agrees because she’s determined to visit her dream school, MIT. They set ground rules for their interactions, but somewhere along the way, those get thrown out the window. Will they reconcile their differences, or are they destined to remain frenemies? In her debut novel, Tucker has created two nuanced, relatable characters. Winter and Bobby are both well developed and grow throughout the novel. The plot is generally fun, and the premise is a classic enemies-to-lovers story that is sure to delight romance fans, but the book suffers from poor pacing and an overwhelming number of issues crammed into its 300 pages. It touches on racism, family issues, fear of the future, anxiety, and more, and most of these issues aren’t given enough space to be explored to satisfaction. Teen drinking and drug use occur on multiple occasions.