The Captain & the Queen - Book Review

          The Captain and the Queen by Phillip Vega is a captivating romance of first love related through the eyes and heart of a 17-year-old boy.   Romance from the point of view of a naïve, middle class, high school senior is a rarity.  Quick, snappy dialog with jive talk and teen lingo combined with Captain’s internal dialog explore his heart as it is hit by a new student’s arrival at a private academy on Long Island. Love, at first sight, wouldn’t  have zapped him so hard except that Calista is not only beautiful, wealthy and worldly but her aggressive attention ensnares him.

          A ping announcing a FaceBook post and a link to old 80’s photos of the high school cast of Shakespeare's  A Midsummer’s Night Dream trigger this memoir-like fiction of young love. The protagonist is called Dude, Champ, and Captain but never a given name.

“Hey, Captain?” she whispered.

“You know you can call me by my first name, right?”

“I know, but I like calling you Captain. Don’t you like it?”

Sweetheart, you can call me Shithead, and I wouldn’t complain.

          By this ploy the author draws the reader into the mind of the teen-aged Hispanic boy and his love interest, Calista called Callie, the daughter of a Greek tycoon. The plot revolves around high school drama of adolescent boy on the verge of manhood, with athletics, bullying, fighting and detention, and vulnerability.  Callie is a New Age, almost woman, who is aggressive with the new empowerment of women. She awkwardly challenges PDA (public display of affection) and curfew but is well liked by her peers.

           They are social opposites, friends who rush into improbable romance, lovers into inevitable tragedy. He never forgets her. She has become part of his soul.

          This is one of those rare stories that enables the reader to experience the heart of a young man during another era. Vega creates an adventure to explore the setting of a private academy in the company of such engaging young lovers as Captain and Callie, his queen. Readers of YA to nostalgic seniors will relate as Wonder Years meets today’s world.