From the Publisher
Kaitlin Malone hates the Crutchfields. Her family has feuded with that family for generations, and now her dad is in jail for killing one of them. This legacy of hatred has never been questioned--until Kaitlin falls for a Crutchfield boy. As if that's not bad enough, that boy is the son of the man her father murdered.
Publishers Weekly
Drawing on the all-too-familiar theme of young lovers from warring families, Pearson (David v. God) recounts the relationship between Kaitlin, a high school senior who keeps a journal, and her more well-to-do artist-boyfriend, Bram. Borrowed diaries reveal to Kaitlin that the two California families are related five generations back, when two sisters became estranged as the result of a marital infidelity. More recently, Kaitlin's father is accused of killing Bram's father, perhaps accidentally, in a feud over rights to their neighboring properties and, further straining credibility, Kaitlin manages to win Bram over by concealing her identity. The whole maudlin tale is never fully sorted out and, in a highly unlikely denouement, Kaitlin gives a confused speech to her class about escaping the past and being honest. This seems to win back Bram, who says, "I never did care much for history." The story also suffers from repetitiveness (readers are reminded many times that Kaitlin is a "proud Malone") and the writing is filled with platitudes and clich d writing ("my footsteps kept time with my beating heart"). Heavy on formula, it seems more like a romance novel than a trenchant adolescent love story. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
Seventeen-year-old Kaitlin Malone and her entire family have a hate affair going with the Crutchfields. It's a situation that has existed for over a century, placing the two distantly related clans right up there with the Hatfields and the McCoys—or perhaps more pertinently the Montagues and the Capulets. The violence, which has killed one Crutchfield and sent Kait's father to prison, also sends Kait to a new high school where she meets and falls in love with Bram Crutchfield. The relationship is strewn with lies, because Kait can't tell Bram that she's a Malone. Kait finds herself in deeper and deeper trouble until the truth outs. Can forgiveness exist? That's the question at the root of this well-written and readable modern parable. 2001, Harcourt, $17.00. Ages 13 up. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr
VOYA
The Hatfield and McCoy feud is reflected in the quarrel between the Crutchfields and Malones in this contemporary romance. Seventeen-year-old Kaitlin Malone has hated the Crutchfields all her life. Her father is in prison for killing Robert Crutchfield in what he says was an accident. Now Kaitlin has fallen hard for the enemy—Robert Crutchfield's son, Bram. As she hides her identity from the handsome, artistic, and popular Bram, she begins to learn more about the family she has vilified for so long. By reading the journals of Maggie Crutchfield, with whom the feud originated over a century ago, Kaitlin learns that the Crutchfields might not be the monsters she has always thought they were. She also discovers that the Malones might not be blameless and that the two families are bound more tightly than she had ever guessed. Kaitlin and Maggie are linked not just by blood but by their writing habits and their struggles to bring peace to their warring families. Through Maggie's journals, Kaitlin learns the pain regret can cause. She struggles to keep regret—and the feud—from ruining her own hopes for the future and her love for Bram. The plot is predictable but nevertheless suspenseful because of the problems Kaitlin creates for herself when she keeps secrets from her family and from Bram. Readers have to swallow a lot—for example, that the Crutchfields and Malones would not recognize each other despite a prominent murder trial. Despite these flaws, romance fans will enjoy the novel. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P J S (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2001, Harcourt, 240p,Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Rebecca Barnhouse SOURCE: VOYA, June 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 2)
School Library Journal
Gr 7-10-Like the Hatfields and the McCoys, the Malones and Crutchfields have always hated one another. Their long-standing feud started 100 years earlier when two sisters disagreed over one's illegitimate pregnancy. Ever since then, the Crutchfields have had the money and the power, the Malones the land, and both families are ruthless in trying to hurt the other. When Kaitlin Malone's father is put in prison for killing a Crutchfield, she and her sister are forced to go to the public high school under assumed names. There Kaitlin falls in love with a boy whose passion for drawing matches her need for writing in her journal. The only problem is that the boy is none other than the son of the man her father killed. As she waits for the right time to reveal her true identity, she gets to know Bram and his family. Suddenly, her world is turned upside down because the Crutchfields are not the villains that her family had always made them out to be. Meanwhile, her lies get more and more complicated. The truth about her identity comes out in the end, but luckily (and predictably), after initial feelings of betrayal, Bram, too, realizes their love is stronger than any family history. This is a good book to use to talk about points of view and perspectives, with believable characters and a fast-moving, if somewhat transparent, plot.-Rebecca Hogue Wojahn, Riverside Middle School, Watertown, WI Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A literal blood feud in which warring factions of the same family have engaged for a century suffuses this readable if overwrought story of love between teens from opposing sides. Seventeen-year-old Kaitlin Malone, living with her mother and sister on their farm in contemporary northern California, has grown up detesting the wealthy Crutchfields—and they her side of the family. Misunderstandings and lies about each clan that have been perpetuated for generations have fueled the animosity, but Kaitlin's even worse dilemma is that she and schoolmate Bram Crutchfield fall deeply in love almost from the moment they meet, though under false pretenses. Forced by straitened finances to attend a public high school—situated on Crutchfield land—Kaitlin enrolls under an assumed surname. It turns out that there'll be more need for secrecy than "mere" bad blood, however. Not until she learns Bram's last name does Kaitlin realize that he's not only the "enemy" but also the son of the man her father is in prison for killing. To keep the relationship flourishing, she is forced to continue lying and weaves a more and more elaborate web of deceit in which she, her family, and her and Bram's friends become hopelessly entangled. Enlightenment and hope that something good can emerge from the age-old enmity come when Kaitlin reads the journals of the family's progenitor, a dedicated and talented writer like she is. In the journals Kaitlin discovers the truth behind the age-old disputes, and the diaries seem finally to point Kaitlin and Bram to a legacy of promise and not continued blind hatred. Romeo and Juliet this isn't, but fans of teen angst and undying-love stories will probablyappreciate the effort. (Fiction. 12+)
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