Wild Swans

Starred review from March 1, 2016
A young woman struggles against the expectations and messy history of her family. In Ivy's small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore, everyone knows the curse of the Milbourn women. Incredibly talented yet tragic, the women die young, leaving behind their poems or paintings and their daughters. Ivy's mother, Erica, though, just left, dumping Ivy with her grandfather. Now 17, Ivy is looking forward to a summer without all the classes and activities Granddad has always enrolled her in, searching for her talent. But the white teen knows she's mediocre and will never live up to his expectations. And then Erica--immature, angry, and resentful--returns with her two other daughters in tow. It's just one more thing for Ivy, who's also coping with the attentions of her handsome, Mexican-American friend, Alex, who seems to want more from her, and her own interest in charismatic, dark-skinned Connor, one of her grandfather's students. Somehow, Ivy must determine whether to embrace the expectations, crumble beneath them--or set her own course. Ivy is sensitively portrayed, her struggles believably met at every turn. While some secondary characters, such as Erica and Connor, are perhaps not nuanced enough, Ivy's journey is handled perfectly, and it's her story at heart. For anyone who suffers from too-heavy expectations, Ivy will ring true in this engaging, nearly flawless coming-of-age novel. (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2016

Gr 10 Up-Seventeen-year-old Ivy Milbourn feels just adequate. For the past three generations, young women of the Milbourn family have been blessed-and cursed-with sparkling artistic talent. A poetess, an artist, and a vocalist-they lived and died tragically short lives. At least, Ivy thought her mother was as good as dead after she abandoned Ivy as a toddler. Raised by her loving but unknowingly overbearing grandfather, the teen is beginning to feel the demands of the Milbourn legacy. And now, her mother Erica comes home, bringing Ivy's two half sisters with her. Erica could not deal with the pressure to become the next amazingly talented Milbourn-she is nasty, hurtful, and awful. The protagonist's perfect no-pressure summer comes to a screeching halt as she now has to navigate some serious emotional waters. Ivy gets to know her sisters, has her first serious boyfriend, and begins to assert herself in her interactions with others. She may not be an artistically talented Milbourn girl, but she has emotional strength to be envied by all who know her. She knows she is not okay yet, but she "will be." The language is very frank and the discussions of sexuality even more so. Underage drinking is viewed as expected and inevitable. Ivy's incredibly loyal friends are realistic, but some traits seem contrived to help support other characters. VERDICT A strong coming-of-age story for most YA collections.-Lisa Crandall, formerly at the Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
Grades 8-11 There is a curse on Milbourn women, or so local legend has it. For generations, they have been singularly talented and have met devastating ends. Ivy's mother, Erica, left Ivy in the care of her loving but critical professor grandfather. Unlike the rest of her family, Ivy has no particular talenta disappointment that she hopes will spare her from the tragic fate that's her legacy. But when Erica returns for the first time in 15 years, bringing two daughters with her, Ivy's life is turned upside down. As she navigates her changing relationship with her longtime best friend and her growing attraction to one of her grandfather's students, family issues Ivy has ignored for most of her life surface. There's a lot going on here, including a handful of social issues that sometimes feel out of place, but Ivy's complicated family dynamics and desire to connect with her sisters ring true. A thoughtful, relatable story about a young woman attempting to figure out her own worth against the ghosts of her past.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)