School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-It's the beginning of the school year, and Joy's boyfriend, Zan, has graduated early and abruptly gone to a California college without leaving her his contact information. Befuddled and still obsessed with him, she enlists the help of his friend Noah to help find her lost love and put some closure to the relationship. After a road trip to California, which concludes with an exciting zinger and a new romance, Joy gains insight into herself and learns important lessons about judging people at face value. Set in a fictional Mormon community in Utah, this is a tame romance heavily peppered with religious values; e.g., kissing is forbidden in this town. Joy's first-person narrative features flashbacks showing that the relationship was based on the couple's view of themselves as nonconformists in a town of the faithful. Joy's character is particularly well drawn-the author gives readers the perfect image of a girl who can think of nothing but her boyfriend to the detriment of her other relationships. The story moves quickly and will resonate with religious teens, those who relish the idea of being outsiders, and, for that matter, any fan of romance.-Shawna Sherman, Hayward Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Joy's boyfriend, unconventional Zan, escapes their ultra-Mormon Utah town for the freedoms of college in California. Joy coerces Zan's friend Noah into a road trip to be with Zan, only to discover that he was also eager to escape her. The humanizing of too-good-to-be-true Zan and some (slight) boundary-pushing by otherwise vanilla Joy and Noah add some depth to this romance tale. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
(Fiction. YA)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Without a good-bye, Joy's boyfriend, Zan, took off for college a year early, leaving Joy behind in their small, Mormon community in Utah. After weeks of mourning, Joy, searching for closure, drives to California with Zan's best friend to visit him. Readers will immediately recognize the shopworn story line of shifting affections as Joy slowly realizes that Zan isn't the platonic ideal of dreaminess she'd thought he was. Smith brings freshness to this satisfying romance with wit, intelligent characters, lists, and other inventive narrative additions as well as a view of chaste, observant Mormon teens rarely seen in mainstream teen literature.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2010 Booklist
