India Smythe in Love?

India Smythe is aged fourteen. She is in year ten in an English school. In the first volume of Govett’s duology India is striving to acquire a boyfriend. In this volume she has succeeded in doing so. Her boyfriend Rich Evans is a musician and a boy of marked sensitivity. Can she maintain the relationship? How enduring will it prove to be?

At first glance this novel is a conventional story of teenage relationships. India lurches from one disaster to another. The question is how she will deal with one disaster and prepare for the next. Recognition of familiar disastrous scenarios caused this reviewer more than once to laugh out loud. The book however scores a notable first. It is the first YA book that has come to this reviewer’s notice which reflects the realities of the Corona virus pandemic. Young readers will find it interesting to learn how the pandemic affects the lives of these fictional characters. Readers in the future will benefit from the opportunity to look through eyes contemporary with the infection, as it recedes into history.