Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson (review)

High school junior and Oscar Wilde fan Elliot Lawrence Gabaroche is caught between futures: will she go to law school as her father wishes, or follow the tradition of the strong black Lawrence women and go through USAF training, as her mother and grandmother expect? Elliot bails on both and decides to Bunbury instead (don't worry, she explains the multiple references to The Importance of Being Earnest as they come up), perpetrating an elaborate ruse in order to spend the summer in a highly competitive gifted program at the only college in the country that offers a major in her true passion, science fiction. Readers will need to brush off their geek credentials to catch all of the fast-paced wit and allusions in this self-aware farce that refuses to be a traditional rom-com but also refuses not to be one as Elliot changes her name to Ever, struggles to figure out what matters in this strange new world of the über-intelligent, and ultimately falls in love. As in Anderson's previous title The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You (BCCB 5/16), there is more going on in the heroine's head than the difficulties of negotiating her crush. Readers will appreciate a self-confident, smart-enough, likable protagonist with some hard decisions to make, one of which involves the laying down of a lifelong rivalry as she discovers a newfound capacity for empathy and an evolving idea of who she wants to be. KC