Young Widows Club

October 12, 2015
A 17-year-old widow tries to restart her life in this contemporary drama from Coutts (Tumble & Fall). Tamsen Baird has only been married for six weeks when her 18-year-old husband, Noah, dies suddenly. Tamsen had dropped out of school to marry Noah, against the advice of just about everyone they knew, but after a run-in with the law, Tamsen is not only required to return to school, she must also attend a weekly support group for young widows. Everyone else in the group is decades older than Tamsenâexcept for handsome Colin, the only widower among them. Through the group meetings and getting to know Colin, Tamsen begins to emerge from her grief and imagine a new future for herself, one that includes college. While Noah's absence from the story can keep the extent of what Tamsen has lost at arm's length, Coutts handles the engaging, emotional subject with a sure touch. As Tamsen and Colin make mistakes of the heart, readers should find it easy to sympathize with the ways they stumble toward healing. Ages 12âup. Agent: Sara Shandler, Alloy Entertainment.

September 1, 2015
Tamsen Baird has always lived a different kind of normal. Raised in bars and surrounded by music, Tam lost her mother when she was 10, fell in love when she was 14, and now, at 17, she is a high school dropout "turned-teen-bride-turned-widow." One reckless night shortly after Noah's funeral lands Tam in front of a judge, ordered to graduate from high school and attend weekly meetings of a support group for young widows. Less than thrilled on both counts, Tam nevertheless begins the difficult journey toward healing and reimagining a new life for herself. It's an interesting premise for a novel, particularly because Tam was not a teen forced into marriage by circumstance. She and Noah were genuinely in love and planning for a future together. Given his sudden death so early in the novel and the choice of title, readers will likely anticipate a story rich with emotion. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Tam gives lip service to her grief, but the words never translate into deep and meaningful emotion. Even her sessions with the other young widows, though entertaining, feel hollow. Perhaps that is why it's easy to believe that she would quickly find herself falling for a new guy. This romance is what will keep readers turning the pages. Tissues not required. (Fiction. 12-16)

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November 1, 2015

Gr 10 Up-Tamsen Baird becomes a widow at the age of 17 when her husband, 19-year-old Noah, dies in the middle of the night. Marrying Noah and taking a break from high school to manage his band and live in the house his parents were building for them were the best decisions Tam had made, or so she thought. Noah's death puts Tam's world into a tailspin. After a trespassing incident with a band member, she spends the night in jail and is sentenced to return to high school, move back in with her father and stepmother, and attend a support group for widows. While in the support group, Tam meets Colin, 26, a lawyer who lost his wife to cancer. Over time, Tam and Colin connect, each feeling emotions that they thought they were ready to accept. Noah's family remains in Tam's life but at a distance, with his father, Mitch, working on finishing their house and his mother, Molly, battling intense grief and depression. Coutts examines underage drinking, lying to authority figures, complicated relationships that evolve as a result of grief, and other mature topics in this exploratory novel about a teen widow. Not only does she demonstrate realistic consequences for illegal actions, but she focuses on the relationships that suffered and were rekindled as a result of Noah's death. This intense and emotionally charged novel adeptly examines the five stages of grief and how one teen handles marriage, death, and rebirth. VERDICT A must-have for YA collections.-Erin Holt, Williamson County Public Library, Franklin, TN

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 Seventeen-year-old Tamsen dropped out of school to marry her musician boyfriend, Noah, and manage his band. Six weeks later, he is dead, and Tam is directionless. When a late night swim results in her arrest, the judge orders Tam back to high school and into counseling. Returning to school after missing a semester is hard, and when the band finds a substitute for Noah, Tam is at a loss. The counseling group is mostly middle-aged widows, but then there's Colin, a junior lawyer at his mother's law firm, who is trying to get over his wife's death from cancer. Together, Tam and Colin try to feel their way forward into new territory, where it just might be okay to learn to love again. Tam's narrative voice will draw readers in to what real grief looks like, and Colin's deadpan humor keeps a serious story from being dragged too deep. Layered with rounded secondary characters and running its own haunting soundtrack, Coutts' novel explores family, grief, and second chances with delicacy and resonance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)