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Published Mar 2024
304 pages
Genre: Romance
Publication Information
Booksmart meets Never Have I Ever in this debut YA rom-com about two Korean American teens forced into a shared college visit road trip where they discover that the reasons they've been rivals their entire lives might actually be signs they're a perfect pair.
Winter Park and Bobby Bae are Korean American high school juniors whose families have been friends since the kids were making crayon art. They, however, are repulsed by each other.
Winter is MIT-bound, comfortable keeping people at arm's length, and known by others as responsible, though she has a desire to let loose. This probably comes from her rebel grandmother, who is constantly pushing boundaries and encouraging Winter to do so as well. Winter's best friend is moving abroad and won't be attending college at all, and Winter's wrestling with what it means to be left behind. Bobby is as Type-A, anxious, and risk-averse as you can get. He's also been recently dumped, which has him feeling disoriented and untethered.
That's why, when Winter's and Bobby's parents insist that they go on a northeast college campus tour together, both teens find reasons to accept even though the idea of being stuck in a car together for 700 miles sounds unbearable. What awaits them is a journey of self-discovery, and the only rule on their road trip is to break all the rules. At first, this happens in hilariously calculated ways (using lists and reason and logic!), but they soon abandon that, challenging each other to dares in Virginia, getting high and wandering around Philly for food—and battling the subsequent digestive distress—and crashing a party in Cambridge. And, of course, realizing that they're perfect together.
"Tucker's debut is full of fun, slow-burn, romantic comedy hallmark moments...A thoughtful coming-of-age story filled with rom-com cuteness." —Kirkus Reviews
"Shenanigans abound in this satisfying, laugh-out-loud road-trip debut... Tucker levies dynamic storytelling via the duo's alternating POVs to present a lightweight rom-com that captures the thrill of spontaneity and budding romance." —Publishers Weekly
"[Winter and Bobby] are such imperfectly perfect teens, [I wanted] to cringe,then hug them. Empathetic and instantly compelling."
—Claire Ahn, author of I Guess I Live Here Now
"You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be begging Winter and Bobby to kiss. Readers, prepare a permanent spot on your must-buy list for Talia Tucker!"
—Tess Sharpe, author of The Girls I've Been
"Rules for Rule Breaking took me on a journey filled with self-discovery [and] sparkling chemistry... Talia Tucker is a debut author to watch."
—Sarah Suk, author of The Space Between Here & Now and Made in Korea
This information about Rules for Rule Breaking was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Talia Tucker lives and writes in New Jersey. She has a BA in Communication from Rutgers University and an MA in Liberal Studies from Loyola University Maryland. She loves mindless comedies and twisty slow-burn dramas, both of which inspire her writing, as does her connection to her Korean and Jamaican communities. Rules for Rule Breaking is her YA debut.
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