Sharp, Bold Writing That Will Have You Hooked // REVIEW: Goodbye Freddie Mercury by Nadia Akbar

Title: Goodybe Freddie Mercury
Author: Nadia Akbar
Publication Date: June 2018
Publisher: Penguin Random House India
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: PRH India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Flipkart || Infibeam || Google Books

Blurb Description: Play the game,everybody play the game . . . 
Lahore is burning. General elections are right around the corner. The summer city rages with the drug-fuelled parties of the oblivious, the rich and famous, while campaign posters and rally cries dominate the airwaves.
Bugsy, rock RJ and host of the nation's top English radio show, is young and fabulous. Seeking more than wealth, fame and prestige, he performs a dangerous for old friend that plunges him into the dark recesses of desi politics. Nida, a young student desperate to escape the oppressive atmosphere of her traditional family home and her conservative college, and still mourning the death of her brother, throws herself recklessly into the drug-addled arms of Omer Ali, son of the prime minister's right-hand man. As Nida spirals in decadence and Bugsy descends into darkness, their paths cross and sparks begin to fly.
Nadia Akbar's audacious debut has all the makings of a cult novel-parties, drugs, mysteries, love triangles, political intrigue and power struggles - but its lush, sexy writing has the assuredness and precision of the most acute style of our time. Told in alternating voices and brimming with sharp observation, Goodbye Freddie Mercury hits the rocks and trails atwist.

“The truth – I’m asking for trouble. Trouble is too damn interesting. Trouble is an integral part of the desi lifestyle. It’s what we do.”

Reading Goodbye Freddie Mercury was this experience that is, quite honestly, hard to describe. It started off like this normal, everyday book. Interesting and intriguing, but nothing spectacular. And then, at some point, I looked up and I was hooked, invested and in love.

What I mean to say (in non-rambling terms) is that this book GREW ON IMMESNELY. Reading Nadia Akbar’s sharp, earnest writing felt I was right in the middle of a storm, enjoying the rain and trying to hold on to my sense of self as well, instead of being pulled completely into Nida and Bugsy’s story.

MY THOUGHTS:

1.       Let’s PLEASE talk about that cover, because it. Is. Beautiful. The minute I saw it, I knew I would HAVE to have this book as a part of my collection because it is STUNNING.

 

2.       I finished this book three days ago, and I’m STILL REELING AT THAT ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING ENDING. I did not see it coming, not even from a million miles away and I honestly don’t know what to make of it. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FUCTION WITH NO CLOSURE ON ONE OF MY FAVOURITE (FICTIONAL) PEOPLE?

3.       Goodbye Freddie Mercury is told from the point of view of two people – Nida, a girl grieving the death of her brother and desperate to get away from home and her family, and Bugsy, Pakistan’s star rock RJ, who gets in deep with two warring sides of a political struggle. I loved who they were individually, how they interacted and just their bone deep pain than emanated off the page.

4.       Nadia Akbar’s writing, like I mentioned above is truly exceptional. It was sharp and filled with observations of the everyday desi citizen’s life, and about politics, family and life. It shook me to my core, made me think and had me INVESTED in the lives of people I’d never met.

5.       I loved the portrayal of Pakistan and its elite in Akbar’s Goodbye Freddie Mercury. Set in Lahore, a major Pakistani city, Goodbye Freddie Mercury brings to life a country on the precipice of decadence, looking only towards the spiral downwards. Whether it was politics, the partying culture or just the general decadent lives, the story and the writing was JUST SO BOLD and I can’t recommend diving in enough.

Would I recommend this book? HECK YES. Go and pick up a copy already.

A sharp and bold tale set in contemporary Pakistan with stunning writing that is a must read!

Nadia Akbar is a Pakistani-American novelist. She was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. She holds degrees from Cornell University and the graduate creative-writing programme at the University of Arizona.

What was the last book you read that completely BLEW your expectations?

What are some of the books you read with such a twist ending, you didn't know what to do for days after?

I'd LOVE to hear from you!

 

REVIEW RANT: Winner Take All by Laurie Devroe

Title: Winner Take All
Author: Laurie Devroe
Publication Date: January 30th 2018
Publisher: Imprint (Macmillan)
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Macmillan International (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: For Nell Becker, life is a competition she needs to win.For Jackson Hart, everyone is a pawn in his own game.They both have everything to lose.
Nell wants to succeed at everything—school, sports, life. And victory is sweeter when it means beating Jackson Hart, the rich, privileged, undisputed king of Cedar Woods Prep Academy. Yet no matter how hard she tries, Jackson is somehow one step ahead. They’re a match made in hell, but opposites do attract.
Drawn to each other by their rivalry, Nell and Jackson fall into a whirlwind romance that consumes everything in their lives. But when a devastating secret exposes their relationship as just another game, how far will Nell go to win?
Visceral and whip-smart, Laurie Devore’s Winner Take All paints an unflinching portrait of obsessive love, toxic competition, and the drive for perfection. 

Actual Rating 1.5 Stars

I FEEL LIKE WE SHOULD OFFICIALLY RENAME THIS BOOK TO “THE CHRONICLES OF THE MOST MESSED UP CHARACTERS IN LITERATURE.”

Not lying, I was FAIRLY EXCITED when I dove into this book. It sounded like a light and yet adorable high school read that I was quite looking forward to. I even had Laurie Devroe on my blog a little while ago and she is SUCH a nice human and I was looking forward to her second book.

SPOILER: I DID NOT LIKE THIS BOOK. AT ALL. I WANTED TO SHAKE THE CHARACTERS HARD TO ALLOW SOME SENSE TO PASS INTO THEIR SILLY HEADS BECAUSE I DID NOT GET THIS BOOK.

In fact, I was SO SO CLOSE to DNF’ing it that the only ONLY reason I kept reading was because I LIKE THE AUTHOR and I WAS HOPING HER BOOK WOULD TAKE A TURN FOR THE BETTER. (It did not.)

My Thoughts:

1.       About 50 pages into the book, I WAS (STILL) WAITING TO FEEL THE CHEMSTRY between Jackson and Nell. I LOVE the enemies to lovers trope but from the very get go // first scene between them, I STRUGGLED TO FEEL EVEN AN OUNCE of chemistry. They were both headstrong and complicated and unwilling to see things outside of their own perspective and sometimes that works, BUT IT DID NOT WITH THESE TWO and instead they came off as selfish, self-obsessed teenagers with egos the size of a large country.

2.       I get that this book tried to portray the double standards is gives men and women and I WOULD have liked that had I liked the character who was trying to send across that message. Nell Becker was a petty human being who was running The Nell Show and there wasn’t a single time in the book that I liked her as a person. She ran around claiming she had to work twice as hard because she wasn’t filthy rich (but she WAS upper middle class) and because she was a girl (YES, SO AM I) and really, I HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT. This book was a 400 page PITY PARTY AND REVENGE PLOT (sex scenes included) and I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW.

3.       NELL BECKER FAKED A PREGNANCY AND LIED ABOUT THE POSITIVE ON THE TEST BECAUSE SHE WANTED JACKSON TO BEG AND APOLOGIZE AND PLEAD AND WHAT EVEN IS THAT. I DID NOT UNDERSTAND THIS GIRL OR HER SELFISH AS FUCK MOTIVATIONS. Even as she FAKED A DAMN PREGNANCY FOR SYMPATHY, she had the most HOLIER THAN THOU ATTITUDE AND HONESTLY, SHE NEEDED A REALITY CHECK.

4.       Jackson Hart was NO BETTER EITHER. He knew some pretty messed up drama between Nell’s family and his own and ALL THROUGH THE BOOK HE WAS TRYING TO WIN SOME GAME I COULDN’T BEGIN TO FATHOM.

5.       Really, WHAT WAS EVEN HAPPENING? I was disgusted at the ridiculousness of the characters in the book and the PRIVELIDGE that Nell had but CLAIMED SHE NEVER DID. She was ignorant, rude and playing life in a way I couldn’t understand.

I apologize for the rant, but I am simply mentally EXHAUSTED. If you didn’t get it, I did not like this book. At all. 1.5 stars. 

Laurie Devore was born and raised in small town South Carolina and graduated from Clemson University. She now lives and works in Chicago, where she misses the charms and contradictions of the south every day. In her spare time, she reluctantly runs marathons, watches too much TV,  and works a “y’all” into every conversation. 

How to Break a Boy is her first novel, followed by Winner Take All.

Have you read either of Laurie Devroe's books? What do you think of them?

What was the last book you read that you didn't like at all?

What are some of the book I should stay AWAY from?

I'd absolutely love to hear from you!

 

A Good Debut // ARC Review: Just Friends by Tiffany Pitcock

Title: Just Friends

Author: Tiffany Pitcock
Publication Date: August 1st 2017
Publisher: Swoon Reads // Macmillan
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Macmillan Intl (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: A new spin on the classic smart-girl-and-bad-boy setup, this witty contemporary romance shows how easily a friendship – even one built on an elaborate lie – can become so much more.
Jenny meets Chance for the very first time when she is assigned as his partner in their Junior Oral Communications class. But after they rescue a doomed assignment with one clever lie, the whole school is suddenly convinced that Little-Miss-Really-Likes-Having-A’s and the most scandalous heartbreaker in school have been best friends forever. It’s amazing how quickly a lie can grow―especially when you really, really want it to be the truth.
With Jenny, Chance can live the normal life he’s always kind of wanted. And with Chance, Jenny can have the exciting teen experiences that TV shows and movies have always promised. Through it all, they hold on to the fact that they are “just friends.” But that might be the biggest lie of all.
Debut author Tiffany Pitcock delivers a spot-on depiction of first love and the high school rumor mill in Just Friends, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads.

If you don’t already know, Best Friend romances are one of my FAVOURITE Young Adult tropes out there. Or one of my favourite movie/ book/ TV show tropes period.

And so, when I saw the gorgeous cover for Tiffany Pitcock’s debut novel and the title that alluded to this book containing my favourite trope, I KNEW that Just Friends was a book I would definitely read. Then, the lovely humans at Macmillan International approved my request and I was absolutely over the moon.

My Thoughts:

1.       In a nutshell, this book took a little while to get used to. It’s told in Third Person and it switched between the boy (Chance) and the girl (Jenny) and it seems very CHILDISH. Third person doesn’t usually strike me as odd, but something about “Jenny just couldn’t stand it,” and “Chance always screwed everything up,” made the writing slightly strange.

2.       After a quarter of the book, I stopped noticing the third person dialogue that much and begin enjoying the book. Jenny and Chance had this way of getting along with one another like they truly had been friends since they were little and I did like most of the dialogue between them.

3.       Something that annoyed me slightly was the LACK OF ANYTHING PARENTAL. And I mean ANYTHING. Chance’s parents were ALWAYS fighting even though we don’t see them once and don’t hear even a SINGLE ARGUMENT. And Jenny’s mom who was supposed to be around wasn’t ever since she started dating and Jenny and Chance were ALONE ALL THE TIME? I’ve never believed how parents conveniently disappear for the plot to advance because THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE.

4.       Jenny was a CRAP best friend to her “only friend before Chance” in the book – Kesley. They’d been friends since middle school, but Jenny was this self-absorbed little wretch that she dropped her friend AS SOON AS Chance paid the slightest bit of attention to her. I felt even worse when we actually HEAR from Kesley about how she thought she was a “big joke” to Jenny and well, BEING HORRIBLE TO YOUR BEST FRIEND IS NOT COOL.

5.       I pretty much feel like this book had quite a good underlying story, but it was so focused on the ROMANCE it forgot the other EQUALLY important parts like Friendship and Family.

I liked the book but not THAT much. It was a good debut which could have been better. 3 stars. #RespectYourFriends. 

Tiffany Pitcock is a young writer from Benton, Ar. She studied English at Henderson State University, but has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. Besides reading, she is a fan of cats, staying indoors, and tv dramas. You can find Tiffany on Twitter

What are some of your Favourite YA Tropes, and which are the ones you hate? 

Are you still in touch with your best friends from High School? Were the friends you made in school better, or the ones in college?

Have you had a chance to read Just Friends? What did you think of it?

I can't wait to hear from all of you lovelies!

Such Powerful Writing // REVIEW: This Is Where The World Ends by Amy Zhang

Title: This Is Where The World Ends
Author: Amy Zhang
Publication Date: March 22nd 2016 (India: July 2017)
Publisher: Greenwillow Books // Harper Collins
Part of a Series?: No, It's a Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Harper Collins India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That’s how it’s been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivien moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It’s the perfect friendship—as long as no one finds out about it. But then Janie goes missing and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friend is colored with doubt.
Using a nonlinear writing style and dual narrators, Amy Zhang reveals the circumstances surrounding Janie’s disappearance in a second novel. 

Short & Sweet: A GORGEOUSLY written fast paced novel on rape, friendship and dreams. Amy Zhang’s writing is powerful and will stay with you for a while.

I read Amy Zhang’s debut novel the year it released and the minute I saw that This Is Where the World Ends was going to be released in India, I knew I would definitely be reading it. Falling into Place dealt with suicide and while I don’t remember the plot very much, I DO remember being thoroughly impressed with it.

So, what are my opinions on This Is Where the World Ends? Let’s break it down:

WRITING:

Amy Zhang’s writing is what brings this book alive. Told in both Janie and Micah’s point of view, her writing adapts to bring out the voices of her characters and does it well. Micah has selective retrograde amnesia (he can’t make new memories) and Janie is a chaotic soul filled with dreams and beginnings and I felt like I got to know these characters because of Zhang’s writing.

IDEA:

I love the idea for the story. If there’s one thing you can say about This Is Where The World Ends and also about Janie and Micah it’s that they don’t fall into normal YA tropes. This story is about dreams and reality and friendship and love and tragedy and rape and IT WAS SO GORGEOUS.

PLOT:

It was the writing that really brought this book alive, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t plotted well. This book switches from Janie (before) to Micah (after) and it also shows you Janie’s diary/ senior thesis (with some GORGEOUS illustrations) and it was all really well planned out. Everything about this plot worked just right and I LOVED IT.

CHARACTERS:

I liked Micah and Janie. Their story was a good one, brought alive by the exceptional writing which I can’t talk about enough. At the same time, WITHOUT the writing, I can’t help but feel like the pair would have been the most CLICHÉ characters in the world.

Both Micah and Janie were pretty much the main characters of John Green’s Paper Towns with a twist here are there. Also, Janie’s attitude towards Micah annoyed me. She kept saying hurtful things like “I know he’s in love with me and I’ll get there too. Someday” and “It was easier to not stay friends in school because of her image,” and it all made me kinds of MAD? She wasn’t a real friend to him, not where it counted.

I also HAVE to talk about that ONE last scene. The book was BEAUTIFUL. The ending was even better and there was this last scene with Dewey and Micah that fell so completely FLAT, it made me cringe. I’ve only experienced bad endings, not bad last scenes but this one was so MEH after such a good book.

CONCLUSION:

This is Where The Worlds Ends is constructed with exquisite writing and gives you a story you won’t forget for a long time. 

 Amy Zhang used to have lots of imaginary friends. When people told her to grow up, she turned her imaginary friends into characters and started telling their stories. When she isn't writing, she can be found playing piano, hitting balls on the tennis court, or struggling through her weekly existential crisis. She lives in Wisconsin with her family.

Follow Her on Twitter or on her Website

Have you read Amy Zhang's debut novel, Falling Into Place or even This Is Where The World Ends? What did you think of them?

What are some of the most powerful books on rape and suicide that you've read?  I'd love to hear your recommendations!

REVIEW: The Last Summer Of Us by Maggie Harcourt

Title: The Last Summer Of Us
Author: Maggie Harcourt
Publication Date: May 1st 2015
Publisher: Usboure Publishing
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Usbourne YA (Thank You!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || The Book Despository || Wordery || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Limpet, Steffan and Jared. Three best friends crammed into a clapped-out rust bucket of a car on a whirlwind road trip to forget their troubles and see out the end of the summer. But no matter how far they drive, they can’t escape the hidden secrets and slow-burning romance that could upset the balance of their friendship – perhaps forever.

I came across Maggie Harcourt’s second book, Unconventional, in January of this year and it was

ONLY THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER (and my first five star read of the year!)

I immediately stalked Maggie, and found out she had another book – one about three best friends on a road trip and I knew I NEEDED to read it. And so, when the lovely team at Usbourne agreed to my review copy request, I was BEYOND overjoyed! Hello new Maggie Harcourt book!

Since doing thoughts during a review is my new thing, here goes:

·         While I wasn’t EXPECTING this book to be a fluffy romance filled with fandom and cute authors like Unconventional, I did expect that I would/ wanted to like it just as much.

·         I could tell that this was a FIRST book. The writing and the characters were nowhere near as solid and real as they were in Unconventional. More than building of characters through dialogue, and the reader making their own inferences, the MC NARRATED the different personalities of her friends and herself, sort of giving you her opinions and not letting you get to know the characters yourselves.

 ·         To clarify what I meant above (^) OVER THREE QUARTERS OF THIS BOOK WAS FILLED WITH MUSINGS AND THOUGHTS. The dialogue was SPARSE at best, with about half a page of talking every three pages. I’m not kidding.

·         Hence, I got the feeling that I saw seeing a FILTERED version of these characters, from someone else’s point of view - one that was obviously not my own – because I BARELY HEAR FROM THEM IN A 300 PAGE BOOK. It was a strange experience, and I’m not entirely sure I liked it.

·         Moving on - I LOVED THE ROAD TRIP. It was a very different one – one with no real destination that really brought to life the “It’s the journey not the destination” quote. I loved the strange things they saw on the way like the Elephant and the Ostrich Camp and the Biker Gang wedding. It was a journey to find yourself and I loved it.

·         I also really liked how Maggie dealt with the “We are not the sum of our parent’s choices” theme, because it is VERY important. A lot of what we learn we learn from the people who raise us, and they face that your parent’s mistakes aren’t your fault was handled very well.

And that’s it. I feel like I can’t properly form an opinion about this book because I NEVER REALLY GOT TO KNOW MY INTERPRETATION OF THE CHARACTERS. I felt like an unwanted outsider reading someone’s private story, and I don’t know what to make of that.

If you’re into road trips and books on the bonds on friendship and family, I’d recommend this book! 3 stars. 

Maggie Harcourt was born and raised in Carmarthenshire, west Wales. At 17, she moved to London to study English Literature - and later took a Master’s degree in medieval literature - at University College London.

She always wanted to be a writer, but has also worked as a hotel chambermaid, a PA and for a French chef along the way, as well as spending several years involved in convention running. Writing is still her favourite thing, but she also loves the theatre. She currently lives in Bath - where she can usually be found in a bookshop or somewhere near the river. She guards the secret of her favourite coffee shop jealously, because she has the perfect spot picked out there for people-watching.

You can follow her on Twitter and on Instagram.

She is represented by Juliet Mushens at Caskie Mushens.

Have you read either of Maggie Harcourt's books? What did you think of them?

What are some of your favourite Road Trip novels? 

Who are some of your favourite fictional friends?

I can't wait to hear from you!

A Deep, Different Novel // Mornings After by Tharun James Jimani

Title: Mornings After

Author: Tharun James Jimani
Publication Date: August 23rd 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Bloomsbury India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Flipkart || Infibeam || 

Blurb Description: On the morning India woke up to the news of the gruesome assault on Nirbhaya, Sonya lay awake coming to terms with a nightmare of her own: If you place your safety in the hands of another, who is to blame for its consequences? Incited by the media post mortem of Nirbhaya that followed, Sonya gives up the security of corporate life and starts a feminist webzine instead. 
When a Bollywood matinee idol –‘Bhai’ to his devotees, and simply ‘The Torso’ to the media – expresses interest in promoting the launch of Sonya’s publication in exchange for a little whitewashing of his latest misogynist transgression, she is faced with the age-old question of just how far can one go till the end stops justifying the means? Thomas, her lover of a mere couple of months, suddenly burdened with contributing to food and lodging and Sonya, unable to apply her political stand to their abusive relationship, negotiate the fluidity and chaos of contemporary urban relationships in ways both familiar and unique. 

It’s really hard to find the right words to describe something out of the box.

It’s also really hard to describe something in a couple hundred words, when you needed to pause on every section of that something to soak it all in.

And by really hard, I mean I’m not sure I can quite capture the essence of Mornings After and deliver it to you, but I’m going to try.

I could give you just three words to describe this novel: intricate, intimate and highly introspective. 

Mornings After is a beautiful piece of literature that takes you deep into the minds of a couple in love, and helps you unravel the threads of thought and the mess of emotions in a highly modernized, free spirited world.

Truth be told, I was already sold when I heard this book was about sexual fluidity, rape and navigating modern relationships, I just didn’t expect Mornings After to also be a journey of two souls, learning to grow up and grow together, to fall in and out of love and most of all, to discover themselves.

Mornings After is a documentation of two souls in Bombay, India, that happened to run into each other. Sonya is a Business School graduate working a standard nine to five job, while Thomas is looking for inspiration. They’re different, and yet, it’s the Potential that attracts them to one another.

As they get to know each other, their relationship becomes something more meaningful and something more toxic, as only the people closest to us have the power to tear us down. They try and see if one will fit in the other’s pre-existing world and also if they can create a new one of their own together.

Then, the rape case that shook India, the Nirbhaya rape case, where a young medical student was brutally gang raped in a moving bus in New Delhi, and her friend severely beaten up as well, just as Sonya has a similar incident of her own sets in motion the need to quit her day job, and just Make a Difference.

Told with a beautiful writing style that I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing before, Mornings After is all about modern relationships, and modern people – how they think, how they live, how they survive – and is also all about getting to know another person intimately. It’s about having the courage to do your own thing, to show the world who you really are, are learning every time you fall.

A Deep, Different Novel that you should be reading.

4 stars.

What was the last contemporary book you read? 

Do you have any recommendations for me that explore the themes that Mornings After does? I would LOVE to check them out. 

If you're looking for something YA, not Adult, I would recommend Louise O'Neill's Asking For It! 

ARC Review: Game On (Lewis Creek #2) by Michelle Smith

Title: Game On (Lewis Creek #2)
Author: Michelle Smith
Publication Date: August 16th 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury Spark
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 2 but can be read as a standalone.
I Got A Copy Through: eARC from the publisher via NetGalley (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Barnes & Noble || Wordery || The Book Depository ||

Blurb Description: Eric Perry is Lewis Creek's resident bad boy. When he's named the new starting pitcher in a town that thinks baseball is everything, and he is nothing but trouble, Eric knows he has to clean up his act. Lay low, his coach tells him--at least long enough to actually pitch a game. But when a fight with his teammate lands him in jail yet again, his season may be over before it starts...until his next door neighbor, Bri, comes to the rescue. Making a deal with Eric's coach, she offers him one final chance at redemption: community service.   Bri Johnson hadn't talked to Eric in months. Her boyfriend Matt, Eric's teammate and the school's golden boy, didn't like her to be around Eric. Matt didn't like a lot of things Bri did or said or wore, which is why she ends it with him the same night he and Eric get into a fight--a fight over her. That night is the reason Bri offers to take Eric with her to the community center each week, so he can keep his spot on the team. But spending time with Eric only makes her life worse, as scandalous rumors start flying and Matt refuses to let her move on.   While Eric and Bri work closely together at the center, old stories of stargazing, first kisses, and a time when they were friends start to re-connect them. As they open up their secrets and their hearts to each other, they start to see that they are more than what other people think they are--and even more than what they think about themselves.

Let’s be honest, yeah? I’m the FURTHEST thing from a sports buff that there ever was. My ideal life consists of reading, sleeping and of course, the television.

And so, for me to say that the SPORTS in a book actually interested me, it just a testament to HOW WELL IT WAS DONE.

Also, ever since reading Cookie O’Gorman’s Adorkable, I’ve been CRAVING fluffy romances – or just romances in general – and Game On seemed like the prefect next read!

”You don’t see it until it’s too late, until your heart’s attached, until you believe the shit they’re pouring into your brain, and it’s like bleach. It poisons you. Eats at you, until you really believe you’re not good enough for anyone else.”

Eric Perry is the new pitcher for the Lewis Creek Bulldogs. Eric Perry is also the pastor’s son. Eric Perry is that boy that everyone expects to be perfect, and cracks under the pressure.
Bri Johnson is the girl next door. Smart and yet somehow with the boy that always manages to bring her down.

Eric and Bri used to be best friends, until life happened. So, what happens when life decides to mix it all up?

“It’s adorable. It’s sweet. He’s trouble.”

As I think about what I feel about Game On, I’m so on the fence about it, it’s not funny.

What I Liked about Game On:

1.    The Self-Destructiveness: TEENAGERS GO ON SELF-DESTRUCT MODE, OKAY? I’m in one right now, and I cannot relate to it any more. Both Eric and Bri somehow found themselves on this path, and it was quite realistic instead of just seeing Golden children, but people with actual self-doubt!

2.    The Family: I adored Eric’s family! I adored Brett and Grace and Emma and his mom and dad and the fact that they were extremely strict, but still stood up for who their kids are. It was so SO refreshing.

3.    The Sports (!): This is something I’m usually neutral about, not being a sports enthusiast myself, but for some reason the sports in this ACTUALLY held my interest! I also loved that Bri played sports as well, and not just Eric. Go Girl Power!

4.    Dealing With Abuse: Abuse can be physical, emotional or psychological and well, Michelle Smith handled it wonderfully! I loved how someone as smart as Bri was put under the microscope and her side of it all was REALLY explained. It was wonderfully done and hit home.

What I Didn’t Like About Game On:

1.    The Alternate POV Similarities: Game On switched between Eric’s and Bri’s Points of View, but THEY KEPT SAYING THE SAME THINGS AS THE OTHER, chapter after chapter. Lines like ‘I couldn’t fall for the boy next door’ became ‘I couldn’t fall for the girl next door’ and were then repeated and it drove me kind of mad. It felt like the SAME person talking, which it wasn’t.

2.    The Overly Done Everything: Game On is a comparatively longer book than most contemporaries, and so the ANGST and the drawing out until they finally got together was so exaggerated, and every scene was filled with red hot rage or tears or something, it was too much. There was so much that was unnecessary.

All in all, a one-time read that I would recommend! 3 stars.

What was the last contemporary you read?Are you into fluffy romances? What do you think about sports? Link me up to your blog, and I'll definitely pop by there!