Your heart always winds up somewhere in the vicinity of your throat when faced with any review, but when it’s first thing in the morning? But I shouldn’t have worried, because Lovely Librarian Sarah really and truly-o got it. She got the nuances I was going for, she got the parallels, she loved what I loved about the characters and felt their pain. In other words, she basically told me that I got it.

Absolute favorite line (among many, many favorites): “Caridad Ferrer does an absolutely exquisite job of interpreting Carmen for a YA crowd. “

I mean, YAY! How awesome is that, right?

Another big sigh of relief came when I read this:

“Also, I really enjoyed the drum and bugle corps. I really learned quite a bit in this book, without it being information dumping at all. Ferrer obviously knows her stuff when it comes to the corps and it shows as Soledad and Jonathan face the pressure of performances and training. Honestly, sometimes I felt like I was sweating with Soledad as she worked on her routine yet again, trying to find that perfect balance for the very top deck of the bleachers to understand her passion for Don Jose.”

Because, as always, since I’m writing with such passion about something with which I’m so familiar, I worry that I’m just being a big ol’ dork and infodumping all over the place. It’s nice to know I really hit the right balance, because the last thing I’d want to do is shortchange the activity for which I have such love and respect.

So… thank you so much Lovely Librarian Sarah—you totally made my Thursday.

And for the rest of you, let this serve as warning: I’m in all likelihood going to be a twitching, neurotic, crazy mess for the next few months. *glares at those of you with the “and this is different how” expressions* (Y’all know who you are…)