The New York Times Book Review - Jennifer Hubert Swan
Rabb's funny and big-hearted second novel is bursting with resonant themes of love, death, family, art and identity, fully embodied in a diverse cast of wonderfully fallible and entertaining characters.
Publishers Weekly
★ 04/06/2015
In this indelible coming-of-age story, Rabb (Cures for Heartbreak) seamlessly weaves together multiple narratives: families coping with death, immigrants determined to make it in America, the power of education to transform lives, reality TV offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, first love, first heartbreak, and the conflicted, ardent passion of a mother/daughter relationship. After Eva’s father dies in a plane crash, she lives with an awareness that “the very worst thing you imagine, your biggest fear, does happen,” a fear she mitigates by avidly reading romance fiction. Eva’s mother, a women’s studies professor, disparages the books, but for 16-year-old Eva, “those feelings felt as real and true as any other feelings I’d ever felt. As real and true as grief.” A cross-country bus trip expands Eva’s world as she and her best friend Annie encounter people who “never met a Jewish person before” and discover that “real-life cowboys were better than fictional ones.” Sprinkled with the poetry Eva reads and writes, this story makes for a hilarious, thought-provoking, wrenching, and joyful quest. Ages 14–up. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (May)
From the Publisher
Wonderful . . . Margo Rabb has created nothing less than a women’s map of American mythologies, navigating from Emily Dickinson to Barbara Cartland, from the cowboys of the rodeos to the makeup studios of Hollywood, and from the bottom of the Atlantic to the spacious skies of the USA.” — E. Lockhart, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars
“A wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence and the inner lives of girls. Margo Rabb writes with compassion and clarity about lives that are worth telling, journeys that need to be taken, peace that needs to be reached. I loved it.” — Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray Love
“That Margo Rabb can write a story so gorgeous, funny, and joyous that is also unsentimental and honest is a testament to her skill and to her heart. I loved everything about Eva and the supporting cast in this beautiful novel.” — Sara Zarr, author of The Lucy Variations
“It is a marvel and I love every word of it: the carefully structured plot, the memorable characters, the wholly apposite style and tone. It is funny, sad, wistful, wise, and altogether memorable.” — Michael Cart
“Rabb’s funny and big-hearted second novel is bursting with resonant themes of love, death, family, art and identity, fully embodied in a diverse cast of wonderfully fallible and entertaining characters.” — New York Times Book Review
“This feminist rom-com reminds us it’s never about the boy but the joyride.” — O Magazine
“Rabb eloquently gets grief right in this compassionate, perceptive, and poignant story, deftly leavened with irreverent humor, of a girl in conflict with her mother. Wise, inspiring, and ultimately uplifting—not to be missed.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A smart teen’s novel. [The] characters are authentic and complex. Rabb knows the perfect point to interject humor to diffuse a potentially devastating situation—a leavening of sorts to the reality that death and love inexplicitly alter the landscape of a person’s life.” — Booklist (starred review)
“In this indelible coming-of-age story, Rabb seamlessly weaves together multiple narratives. Sprinkled with the poetry Eva reads and writes, this story makes for a hilarious, thought-provoking, wrenching, and joyful quest.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] well-balanced read that exposes readers to weighty ideas and difficult feelings while keeping them entertained and emotionally invested.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
“With a full cast of multidimensional characters, this novel explores the complex nature of relationships and the many faces of grief and love with equal parts humor and poignancy.” — School Library Journal
“Humor and depth . . . Often entertainingly snarky” — The Horn Book
“A young-adult novel that deftly weaves humor and snippets of poetry into its road-trip story. A beautifully crafted coming-of-age story that illuminates the layers of relationships.” — Austin Statesman
“It made me laugh until I choked, and it made me cry-it’s a book that made my heart feel full.” — Leila Roy, Kirkus Reviews Blog
“Tender, expansive . . . Eva is a likable, sympathetic character whose horizons expand literally —during a New York-to-L.A. bus trip with a friend—and metaphorically.” — Chicago Tribune
“Kissing in America” is a road-trip story with humor and heart. — Boston Globe
“Rabb’s coming-of-age story has a sweep as wide as the star-spangled sky. [Her] snapshots of America are witty and perceptive and appropriately poetic. There’s not just one love story in Kissing in America, there are many. — Austin Chronicle
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
[A] well-balanced read that exposes readers to weighty ideas and difficult feelings while keeping them entertained and emotionally invested.
Elizabeth Gilbert
A wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence and the inner lives of girls. Margo Rabb writes with compassion and clarity about lives that are worth telling, journeys that need to be taken, peace that needs to be reached. I loved it.
Booklist (starred review)
A smart teen’s novel. [The] characters are authentic and complex. Rabb knows the perfect point to interject humor to diffuse a potentially devastating situation—a leavening of sorts to the reality that death and love inexplicitly alter the landscape of a person’s life.
New York Times Book Review
Rabb’s funny and big-hearted second novel is bursting with resonant themes of love, death, family, art and identity, fully embodied in a diverse cast of wonderfully fallible and entertaining characters.
E. Lockhart
Wonderful . . . Margo Rabb has created nothing less than a women’s map of American mythologies, navigating from Emily Dickinson to Barbara Cartland, from the cowboys of the rodeos to the makeup studios of Hollywood, and from the bottom of the Atlantic to the spacious skies of the USA.
O Magazine
This feminist rom-com reminds us it’s never about the boy but the joyride.
Michael Cart
It is a marvel and I love every word of it: the carefully structured plot, the memorable characters, the wholly apposite style and tone. It is funny, sad, wistful, wise, and altogether memorable.
Sara Zarr
That Margo Rabb can write a story so gorgeous, funny, and joyous that is also unsentimental and honest is a testament to her skill and to her heart. I loved everything about Eva and the supporting cast in this beautiful novel.
Austin Statesman
A young-adult novel that deftly weaves humor and snippets of poetry into its road-trip story. A beautifully crafted coming-of-age story that illuminates the layers of relationships.
The Horn Book
Humor and depth . . . Often entertainingly snarky
Austin Chronicle
Rabb’s coming-of-age story has a sweep as wide as the star-spangled sky. [Her] snapshots of America are witty and perceptive and appropriately poetic. There’s not just one love story in Kissing in America, there are many.
Chicago Tribune
Tender, expansive . . . Eva is a likable, sympathetic character whose horizons expand literally —during a New York-to-L.A. bus trip with a friend—and metaphorically.
Boston Globe
Kissing in America” is a road-trip story with humor and heart.
Leila Roy
It made me laugh until I choked, and it made me cry-it’s a book that made my heart feel full.
Chicago Tribune
Tender, expansive . . . Eva is a likable, sympathetic character whose horizons expand literally —during a New York-to-L.A. bus trip with a friend—and metaphorically.
School Library Journal
03/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—Two years ago, Eva Roth's father was killed in a plane crash, which is still being investigated. Eva's grief is as fresh as it was the day he died, but her mother seems determined to move on and expects Eva to do the same. As her mother becomes increasingly uncommunicative and obsessed with work, Eva tries to escape her pain by focusing on preparing for college; studying with her best friend, Annie; and losing herself in the pages of romance novels. When the teen is paired with high school heartthrob, Will, in an after-school tutoring session, she discovers that he, too, has lost a family member. Their shared understanding of loss and pain draws them into a relationship that is abruptly halted when Will has to move from New York to Los Angeles. Following the advice of her favorite romance novelist, Eva determines to find a way to go "get her man." She convinces the brilliant Annie to enter the two of them in an academic teen game show that promises a trip to Los Angeles and a $20,000 scholarship to the winner. Together they embark on a cross-country adventure that will test their friendship, and ultimately bring Eva to a deeper understanding of herself and her family. With a full cast of multidimensional characters, this novel explores the complex nature of relationships and the many faces of grief and love with equal parts humor and poignancy. VERDICT A first purchase for most YA collections.—Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA
AUGUST 2015 - AudioFile
Hearing Laura Knight Keating give voice to this passionate story of love, loss, and growing up is an experience, regardless of the listener’s age. Heroine Eva Roth views romance novels as metaphors for life and her struggles with growing up. Keating provides wonderfully irreverent narration in all the right places while maintaining the underlying poignancy of a story laden with painful emotions. How Keating says the word “what . . .” when Eve is surprised carries a paragraph of vocal meaning on its own. And the voice Keating uses for Eve’s “Aunt Gonorrhea” is hysterical in all her over-the-top sanitary obsessiveness. Keating's timing couldn’t be better. M.C. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2015-02-16
Best friends leave New York City for the first time and take a transformative road trip to Los Angeles. Sixteen-year-old Eva Roth's penchant for reading romance novels (118 at last count) is termed "your ultimate rebellion" by her mom, a women's studies professor. Eva is a poet, and she used to write alongside her beloved father, but when he died in a plane crash two years earlier, she stopped writing. Rabb eloquently gets grief right in this compassionate, perceptive, and poignant story, deftly leavened with irreverent humor, of a girl in conflict with her mother. Poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovanni, Marie Howe, and others are so beautifully integrated into the first-person narrative that the poetry comes alive. Eva's burgeoning, heart-stopping relationship with senior Will Freeman initially helps her begin to find a way out of grief, as does her smart, empathetic best friend, Annie Kim, with whom she can share the absurdity of it all. But Will unexpectedly moves to California, and with Annie's participation, Eva comes up with a truly creative road-trip plan—one in which America, land of endless possibilities, serves as a backdrop for unexpected love. And love is really what this remarkable story is all about. Wise, inspiring, and ultimately uplifting—not to be missed. (Fiction. 14 & up)
