Shatter

July 28, 2014
An unexpected pregnancy sparks a relationship in McCarthy’s fourth True Believers novel (after Believe), but the resultant trappings of melodrama fail to bring the story to life. College student Kylie Warner, heartbroken over her boyfriend’s infidelity with her best friend, has a one-night stand with her chemistry tutor, Jonathon “Darwin” Kadisch. During her subsequent pregnancy, they bond over her ex’s attempts to get her back, hyperemesis, and the work and worry of juggling school and baby-planning for both of them. Kylie and Darwin are both such practical, committed, stable people that even the best efforts of a genre-standard, one-dimensional villain can’t pull them apart long enough to generate real conflict. The characters are well depicted, but the clichéd obstacles in their way make the story forgettable and shapeless.

August 1, 2014
Versatile romance author McCarthy continues her new adult True Believers series (True; Sweet, both 2014) with a novel rich in emotion and character growth. Kylie has a hot night with her chemistry tutor, Jonathon, and gets pregnant. He just happens to be the offspring of the very same sort of nonrelationship and has trouble handling the situation at first, though he tries to support Kylie as she continues her college classes and he finishes grad school. McCarthy skillfully fills dialogue and short scenes with complex feelings, and when Kylie faces another shock, her raw pain is strongly conveyed and evocative. Though McCarthy's emphasis on Kylie's lack of book-smarts grates, and Jonathon's professor father skews as stereotypical in his lechery, Kylie and Jonathon are appealing and mature in ways that new adults will relate to. This satisfying love story features other characters from earlier titles in the series. Fans of Sara Fawkes' NA romances will enjoy McCarthy's.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)