Kiss Kill Vanish

Starred review from September 1, 2014
After discovering that her father and boyfriend are killers, 17-year-old Valentina Cruz runs away to Montreal. Penniless, she lives in a rented closet, works as an artist’s model, and practices her stolen mandolin by night in an empty cafe. She thinks the music will sustain her good memories of her boyfriend, Emilio, who taught her to play: “Here I thought the memories were triggered by melodies in a self-renewing loop, but this whole time they’ve been seeping out, drop by drop, note by note.” Martinez (The Vow) skillfully develops the contrast between Valentina’s expectations, instilled by a privileged childhood, and her desperate circumstances. When Emilio turns up with an explanation for what he’s done, he and Valentina plot to escape the web woven by her father, but nothing goes as planned. Meanwhile, after the artist she poses for commits suicide, Valentina is drawn into the life of his brother, Marcel. Valentina’s decision making is sometimes opaque, but her strong voice, full of sensory imagery, and her exquisitely drawn relationships with Emilio, Marcel, and her father make this a memorable thriller. Ages 14–up. Agent: Mandy Hubbard, D4EO Literary Agency.

September 1, 2014
This latest novel from Martinez, whose work features and speaks to the recently emancipated teen, offers evidence that the new-adult literary niche is more than a marketing gimmick. Valentina's world exploded when, hidden in her boyfriend Emilio's closet, she watched him kill a man at her father's behest. Terrified and devastated, she's fled Miami for Montreal and changed her name and identity. She finds Montreal's brutal November cold as hard to take as posing for Lucien, the poseur artist and condescending jerk who's hired her. His smarter, stoner brother, Marcel, is dangerous-he knows she's dissembling. The fact that her family's wealth is blood money haunts Valentina, but struggling to pay for food and her share of a decrepit apartment keeps her occupied-at least until Emilio turns up, demanding (unsuccessfully) that she return with him to Miami. While what he says turns her world upside down again, it can't excuse her father. Desperate to escape the past stalking her, Valentina talks Emilio into fleeing together, but Lucien's death upsets their plans. Valentina engages readers' sympathy through each surprising plot twist, although that someone so bright and observant could remain wholly ignorant of her father's true profession isn't entirely plausible. Happily, such lapses in logic are few and easily ignored. Compelling characters and a fast-paced, unpredictable plot make this thriller a genuine joy ride. (Thriller. 14 & up)

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July 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Wealthy Valentina is taking a chance with falling for her father's 24-year-old employee, Emilio. It's a chance that seems absolutely worth it until the night when, while hidden in a closet, she sees him shoot a man point-blank while her father stands and watches. Terrified and confused, the teen flees to Montreal, leaving behind the comforts her father's success in the art trade have brought her-the yachts, the Klimts and Picassos that adorn her Miami mansion, and the freedom to never have to think about money. Her reality up north is radically different. Accompanied only by Emilio's mandolin, under the simple moniker Jane, she busks for money, barely making enough to eat, when an encounter with Lucien, a spoiled and cocky artist, lands her a job as his muse and model. She manages to coast by until a run-in with Emilio at an art show spirals her back into his arms. What proceeds is a whirlwind of intrigue and romance that, aided by Lucien's troubled, but far humbler brother, involves a yacht fire, an FBI bust, a standoff at gunpoint, and a helicopter rescue. From the heat of Miami to the cold streets of Montreal, Martinez's modern-day film noir is a wild ride for romance and thriller fans alike.-Joanna Sondheim, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 When does the daughter of a monster become a monster herself? Valentina Cruz, the daughter of a drug lord, wonders this to herself in this edgy thriller. It's a question readers might find themselves puzzling over, especially when the protagonist's actions make it hard to sympathize with her. Having run away from Miami, Valentina lives undercover in Montreal, posing for paintings to cover the rent, and she's unaware that the artist she is posing for has connections to her father. That is, until the artist's sudden death draws everything into question. Valentina yearns for Emilio, the Miami boyfriend she left behind who has questionable ties to her father's bloody deeds, but she finds herself drawn closer and closer to Marcel, the brother of the now-dead painter, as they race to Miami in search of the truth. Though Martinez's intricately plotted novel drags a bit in the middle when Valentina waits for Emilio to take action, once the daring protagonist takes the reins of her own destiny, the thrilling, twist-filled story truly takes off.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2015
After discovering, in a particularly brutal fashion, that both her father and her boyfriend are murderers, Valentina flees Miami and heads to Montreal, where she tries to make a fresh start under an assumed name. But it's not so easy to escape the past. Readers willing to suspend disbelief will enjoy this thriller's frequent twists and brisk plotting.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)