Hello Now

by Jenny Valentine Narrated by Lizzie Waterworth-Santo

Overview

Jude doesn't believe in love, or magic. Life is little more than ordinary. That is, until Jude's mother
loses her job and moves them to a little town by the sea to live with Henry Lake-an eccentric old man
with rooms to rent. Henry is odd, the town is dull, and worst of all, Jude feels out of place and alone.
So when Novo turns up in the house across the street, dressed all in black and looking unbearably
handsome, Jude's summer takes an immediate turn for the better. But Novo isn't all that he seems to
be-or maybe he's more than Jude can possibly understand. Novo is pure magic-someone who can
bend and stretch the bounds of time. Someone who wakes up in different places and at different points
in history with utter regularity. He knows that each Now is fleeting, that each moment is only worth
the energy it expends on itself, and that each experience will be lost to him before long.
But Jude and Novo form a bond that shifts reality for both of them. And when things go horribly
wrong, Jude and Novo are faced with an impossible question that may change both of their lives
irreparably-what is worth sacrificing for love?
A stunningly written, compelling exploration of the universality of love-and what it means to
live in the moment-that quite literally defies both logic and time. A love story without borders that
reflects the best of our modern world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Hello Now:

* "Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting revisioned as a passionate YA love story, this is an exquisitely told romantic fantasy, golden yet lacerating." —BCCB, STARRED REVIEW

School Library Journal

02/01/2020

Gr 9 Up—Novo is an enchanted boy who has fallen in love with Jude. Although he has followed Jude all her life, she is unable to see Novo until she moves to a small seaside town where her mother lived as a child. Their home comes with a tenant, an old hermit named Henry Lake. As Jude spends time with Novo, she discovers a connection between Novo and Henry. Just as Jude is ready to declare her love for Novo and ask him to permanently stay in "the Now," Henry tells her about the consequences of her choice. Novo is happy to make the sacrifice and stay with Jude, but now that Jude knows what is going to happen, she is not so confident that the choice Novo wants is the right one. Does Jude ask Novo to stay knowing it will make both of them happy for her lifetime, or will she let Novo go to live an immortal life, free from the chains of her world? Love and sacrifice are hard lessons for Jude to learn, and her journey is well crafted. Jude starts off as selfish and moody, but during her time with Novo, she begins to realize how love can change one's world, whether it's human or magical. As Jude matures, she understands the responsibility that goes with love. VERDICT The story is relatively tame for a romance, and the message about doing what is right, not easy, is an important one. A solid addition to any fiction collection.—Jeni Tahaney, Summit High School, Manfield, TX

Kirkus Reviews

2019-12-22
A lonely London teen is swept up in a logic-defying romance.

When Jude's mother once again relocates the two of them—this time to a remote, "far-as-the-eye-could-see whites-only seaside town"—Jude is dejected and pessimistic. That is, until Novo appears. The boy possesses inexplicable and undeniable powers, which include everything from benignly influencing the actions of people and animals to stretching out a single moment of time. His abilities are so intrinsic that Jude immediately accepts them ("I knew straightaway that something impossible was happening"). Novo is also cosmically tied to Jude, and the two begin a blissful, whirlwind romance heavily influenced by Novo's abilities. Though much of the story is devoid of conflict, by the end Jude faces a heartbreaking choice. Valentine (Fire Color One, 2017, etc.) dives deep even while playing in to the oft-trod wish fulfillment of a protagonist finding true love with a supernatural boy. The author deftly handles themes of living in the moment, embracing change, and moving forward after loss. While the conclusions drawn don't necessarily break new ground, readers will nevertheless walk away with a lot to think about. Jude remains ungendered throughout the story, leaving the door open to various interpretations while not actively committing to a genderqueer protagonist. The cast is presumably white.

Short, sweet, and satisfying. (Magical realism. 13-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177718545
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	03/31/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

ONE 

Jude

I’ve never been into love stories. Too much sugar, too much gloop, same reasons I don’t like cotton candy or fondue. Only so many sunsets and hand-holds and ever-afters I can stomach, honestly. Seven words for it in Greek. Twenty-seven in Tamil. All those subtleties and we just have this one four-letter word and expect everyone to make a religion out of it.

I’ve never been into magic either, not the made-up, miracle kind. Not when there’s the miracle of actually existing to deal with, the magic of infinitely small particles, the exact same particles, coming together to make a human being or a seashell or the earth’s atmosphere or a cup of tea or just a log. There’s magic in putting one foot in front of the other, isn’t there? There’s magic in a foot, come to think of it. It’s everywhere. Even to be here is so much.

That’s what I knew about love before, when it was still just a spectator sport for me. Here’s what I learned by osmosis. That people spend their time wishing so hard to be with someone else, they forget how to be a proper version of themselves. That we are all too ready to give up our independence, ache to hand it over gladly like it’s nothing, and make someone else responsible for our happiness, someone way less invested, way less qualified than us.

That kind of love is a selfish thing, transactional, an exalted kind of laziness, and that’s why nobody says “I love you” without wanting it said back.

But love is not a transaction. Four-letter love is a big black hole and that’s why you fall into it. The finest bubble, the best dream, where you don’t want to wake up, not for a second, not ever, because you know you have to, you know you will, and that then, nothing else will come close. It makes all the everyday miracles duller and more ordinary, just from having been there, from having gone. That kind of love and magic feel the same. I know that now, for a fact. I’m an expert on the things I used to say didn’t exist.

Other loves aren’t a difficult ask for me. I love my mother. That goes without saying, even when I don’t like her. I love London, and my old house and all the days of my childhood, all my friends. I love the sea, and walking on its edges, and the taste of salt and vinegar on a hot french fry. I love dancing in dark rooms and getting lost in a long book, and you’ve got to love laughing, everybody loves a decent joke. I love strangers and the internet and I love snow and sand and new places. I love obvious signs of loneliness, for some reason, and old people and young people and most dogs and the things we say to each other and singing and all types of fire and the underdog and a lot of movies, even bad ones, and marmalade on dry brown toast and clean sheets and ginger tea and I am really only just getting started.

Love is everywhere too.

I could fill this whole page with the things I love. I could carry on thinking of new ones without stopping, twenty-four hours a day, until I die. But all of them, standing together, armed to the teeth and in organized ranks with me leading the charge, still couldn’t have prepared me for Novo. Of having him. Of having him with me, alone, the great weight of his arm. And then not.

When I think about that, I feel the impact in my chest, the air pushed from my lungs, the clean sharp break of all the bones in my body. It hurts. It’s a violent equation, love plus loss. I don’t want that to be true. But I don’t know how else I’m supposed to put it.

Look how hard it hit me. I’m bleeding love story all over the place.

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