Negative Positive
Title: Excellent YA debut
Review: Empress of the World is a touching coming-of-age story about friendship and love during a summer-long high school gifted and talented program. Nicola Lancaster makes and odd assortment of true friends. She's faced with her first crush on another girl, an awkward boy she tries to encourage to be more assertive, and a friend addicted to nicotine and caffeine who is playing with fire with a crush on a teacher. Throughout all this, Nicola's trying to determine whether archaeology is her dream career. Nicole grows a lot during the summer, learning about herself and how to relate to others. This is a great teen read with a good basic storyline. My one complaint is that some of the lesser characters are not well-developed, and some tangential plot lines seem to trail off.
Is the review positive or negative? 