Girl from Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan (review)

Rosenhan, Tiffany Girl from Nowhere. Bloomsbury, 2020 [416p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781547603039 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781547603046 $12.59 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 9-12

After a lifetime spent globetrotting with her secret agent parents and haunted by a recent trauma, sixteen-year-old Sophia Hepworth is adjusting to small-town Montana, and romance with gorgeous local boy Aksel quickly spices up her newly ordinary life. Unfortunately, just as she's settling in, vengeful terrorists loom to threaten everything she's come to love. Now Sophia must escape across Europe and the Middle East again, this time with a surprisingly skilled Aksel in tow, and face down her violent past before she can hope for a real future. Like many a summer action blockbuster, this novel offers up a predictable plotline and ludicrous backstory in the service of pure escapist thrills. As a heroine fluent in fourteen languages with weapons training to match, who namedrops exotic locales and designer names with equal frequency, Sophia is less relatable real girl, more traumatized cipher, and Aksel operates as little more than her sexy, supportive secret-warrior hero. Still, what the novel lacks in character depth or plausibility it makes up for with passion and action, as it shifts gears from hot-and-heavy small-town romance to international venues full of shootouts, car chases, hand-to-hand combat, and explosions. Readers might not remember the characters but they may still enjoy the fast, frivolous fun.