Crescendo - A Teens' Top Ten 2011 Nominee

May 18, 2011

“You gave up becoming human for me, and this is what I get? A boyfriend who hangs out with my worst enemy, but won’t tell me why. A boyfriend who walks out at the first hint of a fight. Try this on for size: You’re a—jerk!”

“Jerk?” he spoke to my thoughts, his voice cold and cutting. “I’m trying to follow the rules. I’m not supposed to fall in love with you. We both know this isn’t about Marcie. This is about how I feel about you. I have to hold back. I’m walking a dangerous line. Falling in love is what got me in trouble in the first place. I can’t be with you the way I want.”

And so begins Crescendo, Becca Fitzpatrick’s sequel to hush, hush. Having survived a brutal attempt on her life just months before, Nora figures the summer ahead of her will be a piece of cake, even if she is going to have to suffer through summer school chemistry. After all, her dangerously sexy boyfriend, Patch, is now also her avowed guardian angel, charged with protecting her, which just gives him an excuse to be with her at all times, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Patch was condemned once before for falling in love with a human, a punishment he can’t risk again, and Nora finds him pulling further and further away from her just as she has given her heart and dreams of the future to him.

As if that weren’t bad enough, Nora gets partnered up with Marcie Millar in chem lab, and it seems to be Marcie’s dream of the future to ruin Nora’s summer. Between her completely tactless comments about Nora’s father and best friend and her flaunting of looks, style, and money, Marcie is doing a pretty good job at making Nora miserable. But the final insult comes when Nora catches Patch and Marcie together on more than one occasion. Suddenly, she finds herself questioning if he’s been honest about why he can’t love her the way she loves him, and what else he might be lying about.

Prepare yourself for desire and angst, for danger and mystery, and for a lot of unexpected twists and turns. Crescendo will lead you down paths of confusion until you can’t tell the good side from the bad. But don’t worry, it all gets sorted out in the end. Or nearly…the cliffhanger on the final page will leave you craving the next book (which, by the way, is due out in October, according to Amazon).

Check out the book trailer below, and check out Crescendo from the library this summer!

This blog is part of a series on YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten 2011 nominees. Voting for TTT starts in August; more information can be found here.

~Erin D.