Falling Like Leaves

Gr 7 Up–When her mom announces a trial separation from her adored father, New Yorker Ellis sees her future falling away. She leaves behind her internship at her dad’s media company and her competitive high school for senior year in tiny Bramble Falls, CT. While Ellis spent some summers with her aunt and cousin in the town, she hasn’t been there since she was 14 and shared a summer and first kiss with local boy Cooper. She disparages the small-town life and all that she will miss in New York, such as her best friend, AP classes, and pumpkin spice lattes. In the local coffee shop, when she meets Cooper again, he greets her with some serious chill. Anyone familiar with this trope knows Cooper will be Ellis’s true love eventually, but Wilson keeps the story intriguing while navigating the stereotypes of small-town life. There’s a weeks-long Fall Festival and much Practical Magic movie-watching. As she makes friends and joins in the fun, Ellis rediscovers her talent for fashion design and begins to see how her domineering father’s goals might not be her own. While nothing really is surprising about this debut, Wilson delivers plenty of romantic twists and steamy kissing scenes along with the pumpkin-carving, apple-picking, hayrides, and teen angst. Other than some secondary characters, the main characters present as white.