August 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-Abby's whole life has been planned: she is dating the "boy next door," whom she met shortly before she turned four, her parents are organizing the same bowling birthday party they've thrown for her for 14 years, and she and her best friend plan to be college roommates. Then Dante, a tall, dark, and handsome Italian foreign-exchange student, arrives at her high school, and everything gets turned upside down. Suddenly, she is having passionate feelings for him that she never had for her boyfriend, and she is willing to entertain possibilities that she never before considered. The closer she gets to Dante, the more her life spins out of control. Dante has secrets: He always wears leather gloves that cover his wrists, he disappears for days, and time literally stops when Abby is with him. The more she finds out about Dante, the more danger she is in. This novel has an exciting premise and moves along at a brisk pace. Unfortunately, the supporting characters are all caricatures of high school students, Abby and Dante have very little real chemistry, and the dialogue is stilted and frequently either clichéd or superfluous."Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2010
Abby feels constrained by her normal, predictable life--until she meets Dante, a mysterious exchange student who turns out to be Leonardo da Vinci's apprentice, exiled (along with his betrayer) from his own time for a crime he didn't commit. Mangum adds some interesting new elements to the girl-next-door-falls-for-supernatural-hunk trope du jour, but her emotional plot lines are more convincing than her speculative ones.
(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)