FIFTEEN LOVE
Robert Corbet
Walker & Company
Fiction
ISBN: 0802788513
192 pages

Will and Mia make more mistakes on their path toward love than Shakespeare characters. FIFTEEN LOVE will drive readers crazy with its near misses and crossed signals. There is even friend and family interference to keep the two main characters apart.

FIFTEEN LOVE provides a good picture of a boy's point of view about crushes and dating, even if the girl's side is less interesting. The book flip-flops between the two points of view, making them seem even further apart. Author Robert Corbet has a great male character in Will --- believable, vulnerable, human. But Mia is less likable. She does not seem like a three-dimensional girl with deep feelings. For example, Mia learns that her father is unfaithful. She commits an act of vandalism in retaliation, but the effect is muted.

Sometimes minor characters steal the stage. At times, Will's brother Dave is more interesting than the two main characters. Dave becomes a paraplegic after hitting his head on the bottom of a swimming pool four years ago, at age 9. He and Will battle over things Will can do that Dave wants to do. Dave gets jealous over Will's social life and gets involved in the drama over Mia. There is no easy solution to this problem, and readers will care about how the two brothers sort through their relationship.

Social misunderstandings happen to everyone, especially in high school. Readers may care enough about some characters to stick it out to the end through this tangled story, but it's a bumpy ride.

   --- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

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