The Renaissance of Gwen Hathaway by Ashley Schumacher

THE RENAISSANCE OF GWEN HATHAWAY by Ashley Schumacher is a young adult novel that starts out well, building empathy for Maddie Hathaway, a soon-to be high school senior whose Mom died a year ago. Her family has travelled the faire circuit for years with her dad selling leather-bound handmade journals and her Mom crafting and selling jewelry. Maddie is struggling to adjust to the new circumstances and rather obsessively keeps a journal of noticings (e.g., how many times she has dinner with her Dad). It gets interesting when she meets an unconventional, but very kind teen named Arthur; he calls her Gwen and asks her to be princess of the faire. Their adventures are fun and joy builds, but Maddie is reluctant to care for anyone again so there is some darkness, too. Unfortunately, that is when the story starts to feel very repetitive despite the quality dialogue between Maddie and Arthur and also with her good friend, Fatima. All in all, it takes Maddie quite a while to believe in herself and in Arthur. THE RENAISSANCE OF GWEN HATHAWAY offers some fun young adult romance, but like Booklist, I would target middle school and maybe very early high school readers for this romance and coming of age story.