Rules for Rule Breaking

February 1, 2024
When two teen rivals reluctantly take a road trip together, all the rules are broken. Sixteen-year-old Winter Park and 17-year-old Bobby Bae are not friends. Their parents might have become close, bonding as the only Koreans in their North Carolina town, and they might have similar high-achieving goals, but given the choice, Winter would have nothing to do with Bobby. The nemeses even have established rules of engagement to ensure minimal interaction. So, when the parental Parks and Baes set the condition that their kids are only allowed to head north for college visits this summer if they travel as a pair, they're met with immense displeasure and protest. Winter's halmeoni encourages them to take the unsupervised trip as an opportunity to actually be kids: "You are already the best. Try to be something else." So, the normally uptight pair agree on a truce--naturally with some ground rules to cover their (occasionally illegal) shenanigans. Forced to actually spend time together, Winter and Bobby realize that although they know a lot about each other, they don't actually know one another. Tucker's debut is full of fun, slow-burn, romantic comedy Hallmark moments. While their budding romance is at the center of the story, they also work on mending relationships with friends and family. Through her protagonists, Tucker thoughtfully explores various facets of Korean American teenagers' lives. The secondary cast includes additional racial diversity. A thoughtful coming-of-age story filled with rom-com cuteness. (Fiction. 12-17)

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February 19, 2024
Shenanigans abound in this satisfying, laugh-out-loud road-trip debut. Though their parents are family friends, Korean American teens Bobby Bae and Winter Park have been nemeses since childhood. To keep their parents unaware of their feud, the duo follows certain guidelines, including playing nice in front of their families and not meeting outside of school. When their parents pressure them into visiting Massachusetts universities together, though, Winter’s halmeoni encourages the teens to “break a few rules.” Heeding her advice, they set out to cross things off their bucket list—with a new set of guidelines, of course. Initially, tensions rise over their clashing personalities and individual challenges: Bobby is dealing with the fallout of a recent breakup, and Winter is grieving her once perfect picture of attending college with her best friend, who doesn’t plan to continue her schooling. After Winter persuades Bobby to deviate from his detailed itinerary, the teens embark on an unexpected—and surprisingly fun—rule-breaking adventure. Tucker levies dynamic storytelling via the duo’s alternating POVs to present a lightweight rom-com that captures the thrill of spontaneity and budding romance. Ages 12–up.

May 31, 2024

Gr 9 Up-Bobby Bae and Winter Park are academic rivals who have been forced to be friendly towards each other all their lives. After Bobby's girlfriend breaks up with him, the two are pushed into a college road trip together; Winter only agrees because she's determined to visit her dream school, MIT. They set ground rules for their interactions, but somewhere along the way, those get thrown out the window. Will they reconcile their differences, or are they destined to remain frenemies? In her debut novel, Tucker has created two nuanced, relatable characters. Winter and Bobby are both well developed and grow throughout the novel. The plot is generally fun, and the premise is a classic enemies-to-lovers story that is sure to delight romance fans, but the book suffers from poor pacing and an overwhelming number of issues crammed into its 300 pages. It touches on racism, family issues, fear of the future, anxiety, and more, and most of these issues aren't given enough space to be explored to satisfaction. Teen drinking and drug use occur on multiple occasions. VERDICT Some teens will definitely enjoy this for its romance elements and representation of Korean culture, but others will find the writing to be a bit too sophomoric.-Chelsey Masterson

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