Caletti, Deb. Wild roses.CALETTI, Deb. Wild roses. Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster U.S. publishing company. It was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (1899–1960) and M. Lincoln Schuster (1897–1970), whose initial project, the original crossword-puzzle book, was a best-seller. , Pulse. 296p. c2005. 0-689-86475-2. $6.99. JS To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, September 2005: The author of The Queen of Everything and Honey, Baby, Sweetheart keeps up her funny, smart banter in this story of an impossible stepfather step·fa·ther n. The husband of one's mother and not one's natural father. stepfather Noun a man who has married one's mother after the death or divorce of one's father Noun 1. . The narrator NARRATOR. A pleader who draws narrs serviens narrator, a sergeant at law. Fleta, 1. 2, c. 37. Obsolete. is a 17-year-old named Cassie, who has watched her mother break up her family because of her devotion to a neurotic neurotic /neu·rot·ic/ (ndbobr-rot´ik) 1. pertaining to or characterized by a neurosis. 2. a person affected with a neurosis. neu·rot·ic adj. but genius violinist/composer. For several years, Cassie has been going back and forth between her father's home and her mother's. She loves her mother dearly and can't understand how she can put up with the nearly constant hysterics, paranoia paranoia (pr'ənoi`ə), in psychology, a term denoting persistent, unalterable, systematized, logically reasoned delusions, or false beliefs, usually of persecution or grandeur. , and verbal abuse verbal abuse Psychology A form of emotional abuse consisting of the use of abusive and demeaning language with a spouse, child, or elder, often by a caregiver or other person in a position of power. See Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Spousal abuse. emanating from her new husband, Cassie's stepfather. This is all relayed in a tragic-comic voice, with wonderful metaphors tumbling out of Cassie's mind. Cassie's mother rationalizes all by seeing her new husband as a tortured genius who is mentally ill but capable of producing incredible beauty. Enter Ian, a gifted music student who must succeed in an audition to be admitted to a top music school. Cassie's stepfather takes Ian on as a student and that's how the two young people meet; however, the attraction they immediately feel for one another has to be beaten down and ignored because of Ian's upcoming competition and because the stepfather absolutely forbids their romance as a distraction Ian can't afford. Nothing like forbidden love to make a good story line! Entertaining without being shallow, this will have strong appeal as an outrageous family story. There is some swearing here and there, totally appropriate to the occasions described. Claire Rosser, KLIATT J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. S--Recommended for senior high school students. |
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