Mint to Be – by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc
Scholastic, 2025
I don’t want to give up away any keep developments in my review of this wonderful young adult, or adult, novel. Mint To Be is the second in a series from Katie Cicatelli-Kuc, set in Briar Glen, a New England Village whose competing coffee shops debuted in Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice. It has a Scratch and Sniff sticker on the cover, and it also features a romance potentially fraught with conflict. If readers find that the novel evokes a holiday movie, no brand mentioned, they may feel validated when the heroine’s mom, after comparing a new romance to a five-month-old baby, admits that her optimism may be partly rooted in watching such staples: “I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been watching too many holiday movies. But I’ve always thought that you and Aidan would end up together some day. It’s a parent thing.”
Aidan is Aiden Cooper-Gallo. He and Emma Sherman have been friends forever, literally, since their early childhood. Neither character is a cloying stereotype. Aidan has some difficulties with anxiety, but is never diagnosed with a specific, reductive, condition. Emma is accomplished and ambitious. It’s clear that she intuitively understands Aidan’s vulnerabilities and is always there to help him. She is also obsessed with New York City. Her acceptance as a transfer student to a private high school there, panics Aidan. But he is not the kind of friend, regardless of his intense feelings, to undermine Emma’s dreams. Chapters alternative between Emma and Aidan’s voices, and flashbacks, both recent and longer ago, build consistent characters.
Emma is somewhat reluctant to decode her own feelings, which makes her easy prey, or, to use a much less judgmental term, vulnerable, to finding her first boyfriend at Easton Academy. His name is Sam, and he privileged and arrogant. No, he’s not a monster. He even seems to be sincerely attached to Emma, and makes some effort to understand her attachment to the small town which is her home. He doesn’t relate to dogs, unlike Emma and Aidan. Aidan’s dog, Mackerel, is mildly personified, not enough to be silly, but he is a character in the novel.
Going back to Emma’s mom, her “parent thing” is wholly positive. None of the adults, or almost adults, close to Emma, including her parents, older sister Kerry, and Jo of the eponymous Cup o’ Jo café, try to force decisions on her. The same is true for Aidan, whose grandparents are also supportive and kind, although Grandma has a welcome, acerbic touch: “Like I said, I’ve seen his type a million times.” Both Emma and Aidan need to reach their own conclusions.
Even when Sam reveals his true colors, one of which is a definite shade of controlling, there is nothing exaggerated about either his actions or Emma’s response. Even if everyone in Mint to Be follows a certain course, it is not, regardless of the title, completely predetermined.
Imaginary Elevators 