High schooler Azalea Wood leads a double life. By day, she is a mean popular girl. By night, she morphs into a lonely artist. Ever since her family perished in a car accident, Azalea feels lost and can’t seem to fit in with her group of friends. So she forgoes her role as the “alpha” female when she meets Bruce Green, a mysterious transfer. Bound by their mutual love or creating art, they find themselves falling in love. But as their relationship blossoms, Bruce’s veiled past worries Azalea. Who is Bruce, and what is he hiding from her?

Author Hermione Lee’s The First Buds of Spring is a beautifully written story with likable characters. Lee has done an outstanding job using language and sentence structure to build suspense and tension. You can’t help but be intrigued by the plot and characters. Lee’s descriptions of Azalea’s phony friends added substantially to the plot development and helped showcase how Azalea doesn’t fit in with their crowd.

The lighthearted, effortless dialogue between Bruce and Azalea contributes to their budding relationship and allows readers to fall in love with their love. Azalea’s dual identity is perfectly written as we see her character’s internal struggles to mask her loneliness and her need for someone to like the real her. I enjoyed watching Azalea’s character change and develop for the better throughout the story. Her character embodies what many teens feel in high school and how we put on a façade to hide who we really are out of fear. Lee’s writing shines in her character development, making this a relatable read and book that is hard to put down.

Lee has constructed a wildly entertaining love story with plenty of unexpected twists and turns. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy a fantasy YA novel that will take them on a whimsical adventure.

Pages: 311 | ASIN : B0B4MX4J9L