The Rules for Hearts: A Family Drama

by Sara Ryan

Book Overview

Battle Hall Davies is sure of some things- She's going to Reed this fall; she loves girls; and her older brother, Nick, outshines her. He ran away four and a half years ago; now he's tracked her down, and she's spending the summer at Forest House, where he lives in Portland. It is a summer of surprises. Battle is swept into Forest House's community Shakespeare production, their all-night card games, and the arms of her new housemate, Meryl. As the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142412376
• ISBN13: 9780142412374
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Rules for Hearts

good second book... would have like to see more at the end of the book though

A welcome return.

Sara Ryan is back with her second novel, a sequal to Empress of the World. Battle hall Davies has graduated and heading off to college, her somewhat estranged brother lives in Portland Oregon and Battle has moved in with him and the various other roommates that inhabit the house. Ryan's writing is more assured and stronger in this book and it was an enjoyable read. I loved the theatre bits and the various character's, while some are cliches, they are good cliches and really round out the parts making the scenes fuller and realistic. My favorite part is the wedding scene and I must give Ryan props for having one of the character's wear a kilt and not present it as a man in drag or the source of drunks attempts at humor. The relation between Battle and her brother is the main focus of the book though Battle's attempts to have a lesbian relationship are explored as well, it is the family story, blood family and adopted family, that is the true heart of the book. Ryan has shown herself to be a writer that improves with each work and I look forward to reading more of her prose work as well as her comic book writings. The Rules for Heart's is definately going on my growing shelf of YA books.