Joséphine
Written on Dec 30, 2020
The day of the last party of the summer, Claudia over hears a conversation she wasn't supposed to. Now on the wrong side of one of the meanest girls in school, Claudia doesn't know what to expect when the two are paired up to write a paper - let alone when they're both forced to try out for the school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
But mandatory participation has its upsides - namely, an unexpected friendship, a boy-band obsession, and a guy with the best dimpled smile Claudia's ever seen. As Claudia's world starts to expand, she finds that maybe there are some things worth sticking her neck out for.
- ISBN10 1250180783
- ISBN13 9781250180780
- Publish Date 1 February 2019 (first published 5 December 2017)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 5 April 2024
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Square Fish
- Format Paperback
- Pages 336
- Language English
Reviews
alindstadtcorbeax
Written on Mar 2, 2020
Steph L
Written on Aug 30, 2019
Bianca
Written on Apr 27, 2018
We are rarely all on the same page. More often than not, they’re all on one page, and I’m on a completely different one.
— About the struggles in making friends, and opening up to people. I feel this sentiment so much. And I couldn’t put the book down! It was so charming, so funny, and so relatable. The author really gets me.
justine_manzano
Written on Mar 21, 2018
Naturally, I rushed to read it. By chapter 3, I was in love. I rarely blog book reviews, but I’m planning to start doing more this year. My format will look like what you see below. Now, onward to the vital statistics.
Book Summary: When Claudia accidentally eavesdrops on the epic breakup of Paige and Iris, the it-couple at her school, she finds herself in hot water with prickly, difficult Iris. Thrown together against their will in the class production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, along with the goofiest, cutest boy Claudia has ever known, Iris and Claudia are in for an eye-opening senior year.
Smart, funny, and thoroughly, wonderfully flawed, Claudia navigates a world of intense friendships and tentative romance in Emma Mills’s Foolish Hearts, a young adult novel about expanding your horizons, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and accepting―and loving―people for who they really are.
What I enjoyed: The vibe of this book is fun and light, while still tackling real, human problems. Nobody is perfect here, everybody is a little odd, the dialogue is fun and snappy. I loved the relationship bits, and I have major love for the guy who snags Claudia’s interest, likable and over-the-top, Gideon Prewitt. With a cast of characters that truly felt like people cycling in and out of a real high schooler’s life, and an interesting plot about preparing for a play (the drama geek in me happy danced a bit), this story is all at once touching and relatable. Claudia is a fun heroine, a little deadpan, a little flawed, but a good person a heart. Tackling topics like avoiding change and fearing the unknown future, two topics that I’ve had a personal lifelong struggle with, Foolish Hearts follows Claudia into new friendships, new experiences, and new emotions. I clutched this book to my chest when I completed it.
What I’d avoid: I definitely wanted to feel more connected to Zoe. While the story is supposed to be about Claudia growing away from her and accepting that she must become her own person, feeling detached from Claudia’s best friend made it somewhat difficult to feel Claudia’s fear. It doesn’t truly harm the story, but there are places where I wish Zoe got a little more screen time, so I could truly feel the disconnect forming instead of simply be told it was happening.
Would I recommend it: For fans of YA Contemporary Romance, this book will make your heart flutter. But it’s not all about romance. It’s about friendship. The cast is diverse and realistic. Definite recommend.
What can I learn from it: I need to read this again and examine the ways she managed to introduce the reader to a large group of high school characters and keep them in the surroundings without diving too deeply into their character development, and also never really losing track of any of them. I attempted this in Never Say Never, and I’m truly hoping I managed this even half as well. Possibly? Either way, ALWAYS BE LEARNING.
In the end, Foolish Hearts was a fun, light and enjoyable read. I’d definitely recommend it, and it’s getting a place in my Pitmad pitches thanks to its very similar tone. Foolish Hearts + Greek Mythology = Never Say Never. That sounds fun, doesn’t it?
nitzan_schwarz
Written on Jan 6, 2018
Find this review and more on Afterwords
Some books fall into your lap from nowhere, and you just kind of quietly thank whatever superior being you believe in for being so kind to you. This is one of those books. I didn't hear about it before, I didn't plan to read it, it wasn't anywhere on my radar. And then my Owlcrate box brought it to my doorstep, and I cracked it open. And my foolish heart was moved.
This book was simply adorable.
And I'm not talking in like an "aww, this is cute" kind of way. Oh no. I'm talking the kind of adorable that makes you stay up until freakin' 5 a.m. in the morning to finish the novel because you are so entirely captivated by these lovely people the wonderful relationships they are forming that you can't tell them goodbye. The type of adorable that keeps making you want more.
Yeah, that kind.
And it all starts with Claudia. She is just a normal girl who goes to a not so normal all-girls high school, even though she would have much preferred to go the public school with her best friend Zoe. While Claudia certainly doesn't suffer in her school (and I can't express how much I loved the fact these rich girls are not made into the cliched mean girls), she doesn't exactly make any strong friendships either. Instead, she spends her time playing an MMORPG together with Zoe, her older brother Alex and her older sister Julia and her husband Mark who live in Indianapolis.
Everything begins to shift when Claudia witnesses the breakup between her school's long-lasting couple Paige and Iris. It's that break-up that makes Iris chilly to Claudia when they are forced to work together on a project and causes the two to do horribly in it. As a result, the two are strongly encouraged to participate in the school's joint play with the all-boys' school.
That play changes everything.
It's there where Claudia gets the chance to get to know Gideon Prewitt. Hellooooo, book boyfriend! Gideon is the most popular guy on the boys' side. Everybody knows him, and everybody likes him. Even Claudia. He's goofy, handsome, awkward, loyal, and everybody calls him the prince. And this prince is instantly smitten with Claudia and her wicked sense of sarcasm (which is, really, when everything boils down to it, the best sense to have).
This guy. THIS GUY!
This is how you write a book boyfriend; sweet, genuine, well-meaning, silly, funny, and just head over heels for the girl in the cutest of ways. He lights up when he sees Claudia. He keeps wanting to spend time with her. He flirts and he jokes and he matches her wit and sarcasm. He is interested in the things she is interested in, and he notices the smallest of things about her. Gideon Prewitt, quite frankly, makes my foolish heart flutter.
But wait, Gideon and Claudia aren't the only amazing relationship in this novel. The second one is the friendships that bloom between Claudia and Ice Queen Iris. To say it starts off on the wrong foot is to... underestimate and oversimplify things. Iris is mean, cold and unaffected. Everything Claudia is not. But while Claudia hates fighting and usually chooses to avoid altercations, don't mistake her for a doormat or a coward. Oh, no, Claudia gives as good as she gets. She snaps back, she fights back, and she throws some truths at Iris.
I guess Iris finds that somewhat charming, or at the very least refreshing, because she starts to... thaw. It starts when she coerces Claudia to do another paper with her, this time actually exchanging numbers and even meeting up to do the project. Then it evolves into sharing hobbies. Then it ends up in girl talk and boy talk and all kinds of talk, and suddenly - they're friends, and no one can deny that, least of all the two girls involved.
I honestly thought this was extremely endearing. Iris is not the kind of girl you become friends with at once, and Mills does an incredible job showing Claudia slowly, and often unintentionally by just being Claudia, chipping away the armor of steel around Iris and reaching her heart. In a lot of ways, Claudia is a far stronger force in Iris's life than the-love-of-her-life Paige, because, while Paige makes Iris want to be better, it's Claudia who shows her that she can be, and how.
She's the one who defends her even when she doesn't always give her a good reason to, she's the one to point out they're friends, or that Iris is doing exactly what she thinks she is incapable of. She's the one who calls Iris out on her bullshit but also makes her act differently. She is the one to push her in the right direction. She's the one to make Iris not just her friend--but a part of a group of friends. All things Paige couldn't do, probably because Paige is the most important person to Iris, and therefore far more difficult to share, and also far more difficult to "lose" to.
Okay, I've rambled enough. Suffice to say, I adored this relationship. I adored the progression of it. I adored how Mills nailed the process and the feelings.
Speaking of feelings... this book has a. lot. of. them. It's not in the "normal" tear-jerker way, if you know what I mean. This book doesn't set up to get you to tear up. But it does such a phenomenal job putting you in Claudia's head and fusing yourself to her while you're reading that when she feels insecure, and small, and underappreciates herself so colossally and so matter of factly, you get there anyway. You want to smother her in a hug, and you want her to see she's wrong, while you simultaneously feel small and insecure yourself. It's honestly a wonder. I can count on one hand the number of heroines who have made me feel like this, and all of them were as unexpected as Claudia.
Now, aside for these three characters, the book doesn't lack for awesome people. You've got Zoe, Claudia's best friend, who is just... a great friend, even if she does stumble a little bit there. You have Noah, Gideon's best friend who I simply adored (I vote this bromance for president!). You have Alex and Julia, Claudia's siblings, who are just... all around #goals. The relationship between them is so good even when things get rocky and I adored every second of it!
I would honestly read an entire novel made up just of these characters living life, going on dates, hanging out, talking to each other. No angst or overall arc necessary. Just.. spending some more time with these guys. Is that too much to ask for?
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Original Thoughts
This was simply adorable.
Seriously, I'm talking adorable levels so high I stayed up until 5 a.m. to finish it because I was so captivated by these cute people and the wonderful relationships they were forming. You know a book is good when you finish it (again, at 5 a.m.) and you just want to read more of it.
Claudia is just a normal girl who goes to a not so normal all-girls school. She would have much preferred to have gone with her best friend Zoe to the public school, but that was not in the cards. While Caludia certainly doesn't suffer in her school (and I loved the fact these rich girls are not displayed as the cliched mean girls but as just... girls) she doesn't really make any strong friendships, either. She much prefers going home to play her MMORPG together with Zoe, her older brother Alex, and her older sister Julia and her husband Mark who live in Indianapolis.
It all starts to change when Claudia witnesses a breakup between her school's long-lasting couple Paige and Iris. It's that break-up that makes Iris chilly to Claudia when they are forced to work together on a project and causes the two to do horribly in it. As a result, the two are strongly encouraged to participate in the school's joint play with the boys' school.
That play changes everything.
It's there where Claudia gets the chance to get to know Gideon Prewitt. Hellooooo, book boyfriend! Gideon is the most popular guy on the boys' side. Everybody knows him, and everybody likes him. Even Claudia. He's goofy, handsome, awkward, loyal, and everybody calls him the prince. And he is pretty much instantly smitten with Claudia and her wicked sense of sarcasm (which is, really, when everything boils down to it, the best sense to have).
This guy. THIS GUY!
This is how more book boyfriends should be written; sweet, and genuine, and well-meaning, and silly, and funny, and just head over heels for the girl in the cutest of ways. He lights up when he sees Claudia. He keeps wanting to spend time with her. He flirts and he jokes and he matches her wit and sarcasm. He is interested in the things she is interested in, and he notices the smallest of things about her. Gideon Prewitt, quite frankly, makes my heart flutter.
The second best relationship in this novel has to be Claudia's relationship with Iris. To say it starts off on the wrong foot it to... underestimate things. Iris is mean, cold and unaffected. Everything Claudia is not. But Claudia is not a doormat or a coward. When she deems the fight worth it, she gives as good as she gets. She snaps back, she fights back, and she throws some truths at Iris.
I guess Iris finds that somewhat charming, or at the very least refreshing, because she starts to... thaw, a little bit. It starts when she coerces Claudia to do another paper with her, this time exchanging numbers and even meeting up to do the project. Then it evolves into sharing hobbies. Then it ends up in girl talk and boy talk and all kinds of talk, and suddenly - they're friends, and no one can deny that, least of all the two girls involved.
I honestly thought this was extremely charming. Iris is not the kind of girl you become friends with at once, and Mills does an incredible job showing Claudia slowly, and often unintentionally by just being Claudia, chipping away the armor of steel around Iris and reaching her heart. In a lot of ways, Claudia is a far stronger force in Iris's life than the love of her life Paige, because, while Paige makes Iris want to be better, it's Claudia who shows her that she can be, and how.
She's the one who defends her even when she doesn't always give her a good reason to, she's the one to point out they're friends, or that's Iris is doing exactly what she thinks she is incapable of. She's the one who calls Iris out on her bullshit but also makes her act against it. She is the one to push her in the right direction. She's the one to make Iris not just her friend--but a part of a group of friends. All things Paige couldn't do, probably because Paige is the most important person to Iris, and therefore far more difficult to share, and also far more difficult to "lose" to.
Anyways, I've rambled enough. Suffice to say, I adored this relationship. I adored the progression of it. I adored how Mills nailed the process and the feelings.
Speaking of feelings... this book has a. lot. of. them. It's not in the "normal" tear-jerker way, if you know what I mean. This book doesn't set up to get you to tear up. But it does such a phenomenal job putting you in Claudia's head and fusing yourself to her while you're reading that when she feels insecure, and small, and underappreciates herself so colossally and so matter of factly, you get there anyway. You want to hug her, and you want her to see she's wrong, while you simultaneously feel small and insecure yourself. It's honestly a wonder. I can count on one hand the number of heroines who have made me feel like this, and all of them were as unexpected as Claudia.
Now, aside for these three characters, the book doesn't lack for awesome people. You've got Zoe, Claudia's best friend, who is just... a great friend, even if she does stumble a little bit there. You have Noah, Gideon's best friend who I simply adored (I vote this bromance for president!). You have Alex and Julia, Claudia's siblings, who are just... all around goals. The relationship between them is so good even when things get rocky and I adored every second of it!
I would honestly read an entire novel made up just of these characters living life, going on dates, hanging out, talking to each other. No angst or overall arc necessary. Just.. spending some more time with these guys. Is that too much to ask for?
Amber (The Literary Phoenix)
Written on Jan 1, 2018
Which is why it’s so weird that suddenly Gideon Prewitt is super interested in talking to her, asking her to go to parties, and to sit with his friends at rehearsals. And it’s so weird suddenly having to go hang out with Iris Huang (who’s a sarcastic grump) to do extra credit on school projects. Suddenly she’s into a new boy band and going to the carnival and WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HER LIFE.
This is not a book about a girl who was an introvert and learns that being an extrovert is the meaning of happiness, so I’m going to kill that right there.
Claudia is just… Claudia. She likes play Battle Quest and gets Shakespeare and own 70% of a car she gets to use 40% of the time (or something like that). She pushes herself into some uncomfortable situations and she doesn’t magically find herself happy. In fact, there’s a WHOLE LOT of uncomfortable and awkward going on around Claudia, and that’s just her vibe. She’s Claudia.
I was really hesitant going into this one. Foolish Hearts wasn’t on my radar AT ALL before it arrived in my OwlCrate box. I’d never even heard of the author. And it’s YA Contemporary Romance. That is not my genre at all. Instead of trudging though another boy-meets-girl book, Foolish Hearts was perfect. It was a slice of life, with a bunch of different characters in different stages of different kinds of relationships. I love all of the characters for very different reasons, and reading this at the end of 2017 which was a trainwreck of a year of me personally, this was just the right book.
Readers looking for FRIENDSHIPS in books instead of endless ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS… you won’t be disappointed here. Claudia and her best-friend-since-forever Zoe are fine, but I really enjoyed watching Claudia and Iris’ friendship. Noah and Gideon’s was also really good.
My favorite relationship, though? Claudia and her older sister Julia. They’re only together in person for one brief scene, but it was so perfectly real-to-life and just… great. One of my favorite scenes in the whole book.
Also, as someone who has spent years obsessing over MMORPGs, I adored the Battle Quest scenes. They made me laugh out loud, especially Gideon’s bits.
Alright, alright, I’m sorry… this review is getting a bit lengthy. Mostly I just want to encourage you to read this book. It was light, but it was real and interesting and the characters are fantastic and there’s some really great conversations in it. I loved it.
Sam@WLABB
Written on Nov 20, 2017
Back in September, I shared a list of authors I NEED to read. Emma Mills was on this list, and I cannot believe it took me so long to read one of her books! This book was such a joy to read, and exactly my cup of tea.
I am not quite sure where to start with my outpouring of affection for this book, but I am going to try.
•Claudia was so wonderful! I related to so many of her worries and the baggage she was carrying from a past relationship, but also found her to be such a genuinely kind person. She made mistakes, but she also knew she made mistakes, and worked hard to remedy those transgressions. I just adored her and wanted to be her friend, as well as a part of her guild too.
•Gideon!!! There was a LOT more to this uber-popular boy than we were led to believe. He came off a little goofy and not very serious, but as the story progressed, we learned about what a beautiful and kind person he really was. I would totally have Gideon as my "majestic space prince" any day. And if he was older or I was younger, I would eat soggy cereal with him.
•In general, this book is packed with superb characters. They were quirky and interesting and felt real to me. I was super eager to spend time in their world, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of characters to do it with.
•I love romance, and my heart just exploded from the romances in this book. There are three to watch, and all are sweet and adorable, and I shipped them all. Claudia's romance was the main focus, and it was so adorably awkward and perfectly "her". I just couldn't get enough of it.
•Claudia's narration was so fabulous! I just loved being in her head, and I found her voice to be perfect.
•Growth, growth, and more growth! I felt like a lot of characters experienced significant personal growth in this book, but most notably, Iris and Claudia. Iris learned how to be a better friend and a better person, and Claudia learned to love and appreciate herself more. I am always on board with personal growth, and found Claudia's to be an important journey to share.
•The family ties were tied nice and tight in this one. Claudia's family was total #FamilyGoals. Her parents are very present in this book, but we see more focus on the sibling relationships, which were quite lovely. I love that they maintained contact over the miles by playing an MMORPG together. You know what they say, the family that plays together, stays together. Mills really did a wonderful job with the family dynamic, and I couldn't get enough of this clan.
•This is my favorite kind of book, because it was quite fun, packed with great and witty banter, and low drama. It's almost as if Mills wrote this book just for me.
Overall: A wonderful story filled with family and friendship, which left me with an incurable case of the warm-fuzzies. I have now found an new author for my go-to list and am eager to read every book Mills writes.
*I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced copy of this book.