Unfortunately, it was so realistic that it grated on me at times and I found it a bit over-the-top and obnoxious. The kids were all goofy and raucous and constantly referencing inside jokes. I thought Kelly Quindlen did an excellent job portraying high school friendships. She sweeps the back of her hand across her forehead and remembers, with the force of a stone slinging down into her belly, that she had been dreaming about God. Her face and neck are damp with cold sweat. She sits straight up in bed with her heart sprinting in her chest. Having grown up surrounded by plenty of Catholic family members, I found this quite an interesting slant to things, but I can definitely see that making this a difficult or impossible read for some people. What the blurb leaves out is that both girls attend Catholic school and that their faith is quite important to them, as well as the people around them. As the blurb states, this is about a girl falling in love with her best friend and struggling with those feelings. She should follow the rules of her conservative Louisiana community–the rules that have been ingrained in her since she was a child.īut Hannah longs to be with Baker, who cooks macaroni and cheese with Hannah late at night, who believes in the magic of books as much as Hannah does, and who challenges Hannah to be the best version of herself.Īnd Baker might want to be with Hannah, too–if both girls can embrace that world-shaking, yet wondrous, possibility. She should cheer on her friend Clay when he asks Baker to be his girlfriend. Hannah knows she should like Wally, the kind, earnest boy who asks her to prom. The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a girl–especially when that girl is her best friend, Baker. Hannah wants to spend her senior year of high school going to football games and Mardi Gras parties with her tight-knit group of friends. Goodreads | IndieBound | Author’s Website

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen