A death-struck year

This is the kind of book that's not for everyone, but it is for me! I like a bit of slower-paced, well-researched historical fiction. I was persuaded to pick this up after I saw Makiia Lucier at a book festival and she talked about all the research she did, down to looking at old street maps and then going to an antiques car show to look at the kind of car Cleo would have driven. So...check this out if you're into that kind of thing!

Now THIS is what YA romance should be like! (No, this isn't really a romance; it's a story of the Spanish Flu epidemic, when more people died than in the Black Plague.) Quick attraction, but not insta-love. Real characters, not cardboard cutouts. Time to develop friendship & love, because duh, love at first sight isn't really love (it's just infatuation). Real conflicts, not just “my family doesn't like him.” Decent (I mean “good,” not “well-written”) characters, not bad boys and rebellious girls. And this is all on top of a fascinating historical event, good writing, and interesting characters.