Bubbling up with Helena

• Title: Plus One
• Author: Kelsey Rodkey
• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Release Date: 1/31/23
• Genre: Contemporary Fiction
• Age Range: Young Adult
• Rating: ★★★★
• Publisher’s Summary: They say that those who can’t do, teach. Lahey Johnson is notorious for helping her friends and classmates find love. Sure, she’s never had a boyfriend herself. But she could. If she wanted to. Right? She just hasn’t had a reason to focus on her own love life—but now, with her detested cousin Summer’s sweet sixteen coming up, she’s got the ultimate reason: revenge. Lahey will do anything to prove that she can get a date to Summer’s party—anything, including juggle six prospective suitors in seven days. She’s matched people before—all she needs to do is figure out who these guys are looking for and become that girl. Easy. The only issue? Her older sister’s irritating friend Adler has decided to take a front-row seat to the spectacle that is Lahey’s life. He can bother her all he wants—nothing will distract Lahey from her goal of one-upping Summer. But as the party creeps closer, the panic sets in. Can a matchmaker ever really meet her own match?

I loved Kelsey Rodkey’s first two books, Last Chance Books and A Disaster in Three Acts, and I was very excited for Plus One. It did not disappoint.

First of all, I love that the cover art of Plus One includes a depiction of Lahey that is not stick thin. The reader learns that Lahey is not skinny, and she does address that it can sometimes be hard to find clothes in thrift shops that fit her. However, I never got the sense that she is eager to change her body. This kind of representation is important, especially in young adult literature.

Lahey is obssessed with finding a date for her cousin’s party, and it does get grating towards the end. She ends up burning a lot of bridges, including with her best friend and sisters, in the process. However, she takes responsibility for her actions and apologizes sincerely to those she hurt. I was glad to see that she put in the work to try to fix her mistakes.

I really liked Lahey and Adler’s relationship. Even early in the book when Lahey claims to hate Adler, it is always clear that he cares about her and is willing to go above and beyond to help her. He makes sure she’s okay when a date goes wrong, he helps her get her sister’s car fixed when she gets into an accident, and he drives her to the cat cafe when her little sister brings home a stray cat. It’s almost surprising it takes Lahey so long to realize that Adler likes her.

As someone who is also the middle of three sisters, I appreciated the focus on Lahey’s relationships with her sisters. They get frustrated with one another and fight (see above about Lahey getting into an accident in her sister’s car), but it always is clear they care about each other and see each other as a part of the same team. It feels like such a real portrayal of sibling relationships.

There is a sense of fun that runs through Plus One. Lahey doesn’t just go to dinner and a movie with her potential dates; she goes to a robot fighting competion, an axe-throwing space, and even to an ice rink in the summer. The way Lahey analyzes her dates by going through how she knows them and their likes and dislikes adds to the book’s sense of humor.

Plus One is a fun and quick read that is perfect for the summer. I also recommend you pick up Rodkey’s other books if you haven’t read them yet.