“Fresh, perceptive, and irresistibly readable…”

In DaVeiga’s The Orion Sessions trilogy, thirteen-year-old Orion Casey navigates friendship, creative ambition, betrayal, and the complicated relationship between identity and attention. Best Friends introduces Orion after humiliation has driven her away from singing. When anonymous, perfectly timed messages signed “J” begin encouraging her talent, Orion finds the confidence to explore songwriting and reconsider how much of her self-worth depends on other people’s approval. Stolen takes that emerging confidence to songwriting camp, where social-media-famous Ava Rae invites Orion to co-write “Jersey Style,” then posts the song as entirely her own. With Orion’s notebook — and her strongest proof — missing, betrayal becomes a fight to be believed. Viral reverses the situation: evidence of the theft emerges, Orion becomes an overnight sensation, and the girl who wanted recognition must contend with thousands of strangers watching and defining her.

The first installment is the most intimate, grounding Orion’s struggles in recognizable middle-school insecurities: shifting friendships, mean-girl dynamics, crushes, embarrassment, and the exhausting awareness of what everyone else might be thinking. The mysterious messages add intrigue, while Orion’s relationships with loyal Izzy and musically gifted Jesse give the story warmth. Music becomes more than a talent; songwriting gives Orion an outlet for feelings she struggles to express and gradually allows her to reclaim the confidence she surrendered after being ridiculed.

Stolen delivers the trilogy’s sharpest central conflict. Ava’s theft hurts not simply because Orion loses credit but because Ava effectively erases her from their shared creative experience. DaVeiga makes thoughtful use of Ava’s popularity, showing how status and visibility can make one version of events appear more credible than another.

Viral is the most ambitious installment, shifting the focus from invisibility to overexposure. Orion finally receives recognition, followers, media attention, and industry interest, but vindication creates new pressures. Strangers treat access to her music as access to Orion herself, friendships strain, and private moments acquire public meanings. Particularly effective is Orion’s discomfort as Ava’s public downfall fuels her own rise. The same online culture that helps deliver justice also reveals an appetite for humiliation.

Orion remains an engaging protagonist because DaVeiga allows her to stay convincingly thirteen: funny, insecure, impulsive, perceptive, and occasionally shortsighted. Her conversational narration, humor, texts, and original songs keep the series moving, while Izzy, Jesse, Daisy, and Ava give its friendship conflicts texture. Together, the novels form a cohesive exploration of voice, identity, and self-worth. The series examines the courage required to express yourself, claim what belongs to you, and remain grounded when other people’s expectations threaten to shape your identity.

For readers who like their middle-grade fiction packed with music, friendship complications, and contemporary drama, this trilogy hits all the right notes.

— The Prairies Book Review, of the trilogy