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…
3 Stars
Reviewed by Jen Hagen
This was a difficult book to rate. I did not care for the characters at all. Right off the bat I could not stand West (the male main character) and when you strongly dislike a character it makes completing the book a hard task. What kept me going were the emotions the author was pulling out of me. West is having a difficult time accepting the fact that his father is dying. It was heart touching to see how West wanted to be able to spend all his free time sitting by his dad’s bed talking, even if his dad could no longer converse. West’s softer side to his dad was the best part of the book; otherwise West was a jerk, especially to women.
Maggie hasn’t had an easy life. She has recently been sent to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin (Brady). Maggie witnessed a horrific event and because of that she chooses not to speak. She doesn’t want people asking her about that night because she does not want to relive it. It’s best that everybody thinks she is scarred by the event and has become mute.
Brady and West are teammates on the football team. Brady has made it perfectly clear that any interaction with Maggie is off limits. West does what he wants…and who he wants for that matter. He has a lot of women drama that he seems to bring on himself which somehow has found its way into Maggie’s life. West gives Maggie her first kiss and after that acts like a bona fide jerk.
“It’s time you run along now,” I warned her, even though I should have been the one to walk away.
For some reason West is drawn to Maggie, even though Brady has made it abundantly clear to stay away from Maggie. West has not told any of his teammates about his father’s illness and impending death, but he spills it all out for Maggie to bear.
“I’m tired of acting like I give a sh*t out there… Since you don’t talk, that makes it better. Someone I can talk to who keeps quiet.”
Maggie is there for West when it comes to him letting go of the weight he’s carrying around on his shoulders, but unfortunately Maggie is developing deeper feelings for West – something that West isn’t reciprocating. I felt like Maggie was taking on West’s problems so that she wouldn’t have to face her own. Finally West steps up to the plate and is able to reciprocate the strength Maggie showed for him along with admitting his feelings for her, but for me it was just a little too late.
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