Quarantine: a Love Story, written by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc, reviewed by Stephanie Wilson

Summary: Flora is heading home from a disastrous spring break with her dad and his much younger new wife. Oliver desperately wants to go home and attend the party thrown by his classmate and crush, Kelsey. Fate puts Flora and Oliver on the same flight home to Brooklyn. When they land, they are met by the CDC who screens every passenger for tropical mono. A passenger from their flight was exhibiting all the classic symptoms. The entire flight is put into a temporary overnight quarantine. The next morning all of the passengers need to pass a final screening before boarding the flight for home. While in line, Flora realizes she isn't ready to go home yet. She intentionally messes with the thermometer and gets a reading indicating that she has a fever. Before she is hauled off to quarantine, she impulsively kisses Oliver, the boy she met on the flight. Oliver is shocked that no one realizes that Flora is faking her illness. He wants to say something but he never gets a chance. Both teens are put in a 30-day quarantine in a shared room at the hospital. Flora feels badly for wrecking Oliver’s chances with Kelsey. She decides to help Oliver win Kelsey’s heart by creating a social media movement #quaranteen that quickly goes viral. Quarantine is a lot more crowded than Flora ever imagined. The hospital staff rotate in and out every few hours for vitals checks. Hilarity ensues when both sets of parents arrive and Kelsey shows up to “take care of Oliver.” 

Straight Talk for Librarians: Quarantine: a Love Story is witty, clever, honest and heartfelt. Readers will root for Oliver and Flora to the end. Cicatelli-Kuc took a serious topic and made it absolutely hilarious. The main characters are well developed and nuanced. The other characters including Kelsey are much more thinly drawn. The story is told in very short chapters in the alternating voices of Flora and Oliver. This convention keeps the plot moving at a quick pace. The novel works best as pleasure reading. The writing is free of profanity and the romance is pretty tame. I highly recommend Quarantine: a Love Story for younger young adult readers and fans of rom coms.