By: Abbi Glines
Published: August 25, 2015 by Simon Pulse
320 pages
Source: Personal Kindle Library
(Goodreads / Amazon)
Summary:
The first novel in a brand-new series—from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Abbi Glines—about a small Southern town filled with cute boys in pickup trucks, Friday night football games, and crazy parties that stir up some major drama.MY REVIEW:
To everyone who knows him, West Ashby has always been that guy: the cocky, popular, way-too-handsome-for-his-own-good football god who led Lawton High to the state championships. But while West may be Big Man on Campus on the outside, on the inside he’s battling the grief that comes with watching his father slowly die of cancer.
Two years ago, Maggie Carleton’s life fell apart when her father murdered her mother. And after she told the police what happened, she stopped speaking and hasn’t spoken since. Even the move to Lawton, Alabama, couldn’t draw Maggie back out. So she stayed quiet, keeping her sorrow and her fractured heart hidden away.
As West’s pain becomes too much to handle, he knows he needs to talk to someone about his father—so in the dark shadows of a post-game party, he opens up to the one girl who he knows won’t tell anyone else.
West expected that talking about his dad would bring some relief, or at least a flood of emotions he couldn’t control. But he never expected the quiet new girl to reply, to reveal a pain even deeper than his own—or for them to form a connection so strong that he couldn’t ever let her go…
Oh, Abbi Glines...I don't think there'll ever be a book she writes that I don't enjoy. Seriously, she knows how to write a good contemporary romance story! When I first saw the cover for this and read the description I knew I would love it and immediately added it to my mental "buy on release day" list. I love the YA genre, love contemporary romance and I love stories that revolve around high school football games.
What I wasn't expecting was the tearjerker factor that comes with this story. Perhaps it's because of personal experiences but there were definitely aspects that touched me deeply.
Told between alternating POV's of high school seniors, West Ashby and Maggie (the description says her last name but I honestly couldn't remember reading it in the story). Maggie witnessed her own father shoot and kill her mother and as a protective mechanism stopped talking afterwards. 2 years later and she still doesn't speak. She's moved to a new town to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin, and in this new town high school football is THE thing to be involved in. Her cousin, Brady, is the star quarterback and his best friend, West, is the star running back. Both have dreams of playing football in college. So Maggie is forced (by her aunt) with being around a group of guys who maybe have a little bit too much testosterone. Her aunt's good intentions of wanting her to feel like she fits in leads to her sitting alone at field parties on Friday night's watching from a distance all that goes on in this small town.
West and his friends are all good-looking, athletic guys and ALL the females at the school want to be in a relationship with them. Even though it may seem that West has it all, he's keeping something big to himself in a small town where gossip is everywhere. His best friends don't even know. Silent Maggie appeals to him. She's pretty and she doesn't talk. So he vents to her one night at a field party about what's going on in his life thinking she's the one person who wouldn't tell anyone else. And this opens the door for a friendship that is unequaled to anything West has ever had before.
The side characters that I'm SURE will end up with their own story in this series, Brady, Nash, Gunner (just to name a few) are all likeable "all-American" jocks. But I'm sure there's more to these guys than their good looks. This is one series I'm sure to return to on release day for each new story!
If you love the writings of Abbi Glines, don't miss out on this new series! If you're new to Abbi's work, but love YA Contemporary Romance, then where have you been living?!? (Kidding...a little) She's one of the queen writers in this genre. Go check her books out!
Favorite Quotes:
Pain came to all of us at some time or another. It was how we learned to cope with it that determined our future.
His smile was the kind of smile that was so rare, you wanted to keep it. It made you sit around and think of things to do just to get that smile flashed at you. When his eyes were genuinely in it and he truly meant it, there was nothing that compared to West Ashby's smile.
"Boys don't always make the right decisions. It takes years before they become men and wise up."
There was nothing to say. In the face of sorrow and loss, no words could ever be adequate.
"In life we often have to make decisions that aren't easy. But it doesn't mean they aren't right."
Language Rating: 2 (medium)
Mature Content Rating: 2 (medium)
Final Rating: 4 stars
0 comments:
Post a Comment