Orion Casey lives for music, but she won\u2019t sing in public. She developed a phobia after her frenemy, Melissa Rae, and her minions openly mocked Orion\u2019s singing voice. So while Melissa Rae takes the spotlight in their school\u2019s musical production, Orion is just fine working backstage. Her self-esteem gets a welcome boost from an unlikely source: anonymous text messages signed J. They\u2019re complimentary and encouraging: \u201cYou are strong! You are fearless! And super talented.\u201d Orion can\u2019t help but think (and hope) that those texts are from Jesse, the guy she\u2019s crushing on. He always says hello, and he\u2019s even given her the nickname Red, after her fire-emoji-hued hair. Best of all, he sings and plays guitar, just like Orion. She\u2019s overjoyed when she gets the chance to play music with Jesse and considers rethinking her no-singing-in-public rule. But if Jesse isn\u2019t J, then who\u2019s been sending all those texts, and why? Orion\u2019s quirky first-person narration gives DaVeiga\u2019s book a sense of buoyancy. She notes that Melissa Rae has someone wrapped around her \u201cpress-on-nailed finger\u201d; Orion goes through a \u201czillion emotions\u201d in a matter of seconds. She\u2019s an immensely likable protagonist, although her best friend, Izzy, nearly steals the story; Izzy is funny, fiercely loyal, and knows how to draw out a big revelation. Other characters show depth as well\u2014Orion\u2019s and Izzy\u2019s families share history, and Jesse eventually drops some particulars about his \u201cmysterious past.\u201d The author deftly portrays the world of middle school, with potential bullies, hallway interactions, and social media providing much fuel for the story. The one downside to this novella is that it\u2019s over too soon; thankfully, sequels will follow.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Orion Casey lives for music, but she won\u2019t sing in public. She developed a phobia after her frenemy, Melissa Rae, and her minions openly mocked Orion\u2019s singing voice. So while Melissa Rae takes the spotlight in their school\u2019s musical production, Orion is just fine working backstage. Her self-esteem gets a welcome boost from an unlikely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}