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Jennifer Torres's The Win Over is a family story for 10 year olds about twin sisters, their brand-new stepsister and a wedding that suddenly heads for Mexico.
It picks up where The Do-Over left off. Lucinda and Raquel Mendoza are spending the summer at their dad's ranch in California. Dad is marrying Sylvia, and her daughter Jules is about to become their sister. All three girls are about to start seventh grade.
On the surface, things are going well. Jules is dyeing T-shirts flamingo pink with beet juice. Lucinda has joined a synchronised skating team and suddenly has plans every single day. (She's even getting up early to go running, which nobody can quite believe.)
Raquel is the one who's struggling. She runs her school's news site, and a new boy is in charge of it for the summer. He's doing a really good job. That's the problem!
Then a letter arrives from Mexico. Sylvia's aunt, who practically brought her up, has been told by her doctor not to travel to the wedding. So Jules has an idea. Why not take the wedding to her? Everyone at the breakfast table cheers except Raquel, who storms out and climbs a tree.
The chapters swap between the twins, and that's the best bit. You get Lucinda feeling guilty that she likes having Jules around. Then you get Raquel noticing that her sister never talks about going home to LA when the summer ends. Each twin is sure she knows what the other one is thinking (and they're both a little bit wrong).
It's a gentle, warm read about how strange it feels when your family changes shape. Nobody is a baddie. Sylvia is kind, Dad tries hard and Jules is lovely. It's just that being happy for other people can sit right next to feeling left out.
It's set as the world opens up again after a pandemic lockdown, so there's a virus in the background and the wedding is kept small. Anyone who's ever felt a bit left behind by a sibling's new friends will probably see themselves in Raquel.
If they enjoy Jennifer Torres's warm family muddles, try Stef Soto, Taco Queen. It's about another seventh grader with very strong feelings about her family, this time about the taco truck her dad keeps turning up in to collect her from school.
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