From the national bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths series and The Simple Wild comes a poignant story about a girl trying to change her future while evading her past.
Synopsis
Almost sixteen-year-old Aria Jones is starting over. New postal code, new last name, new rules. But she doesn’t mind, because it means she can leave her painful regrets behind. In the bustling town of Eastmonte, she can become someone else. Someone better.
With the Hartford family living next door, it seems she will succeed. Sure, Cassie Hartford may be the epitome of social awkwardness thanks to her autism, but she also offers an innocent and sincere friendship that Aria learns to appreciate. And Cassie’s older brother, Emmett—a popular Junior A hockey player with a bright future—well … Aria wishes that friendship could lead to something more. If he didn’t already have a girlfriend, maybe it would.
But Aria soon finds herself in a dicey moral predicament that could derail her attempt at a fresh start. It is her loyalty to Cassie and her growing crush on Emmett that leads her to make a risky move, one that earns her a vindictive enemy who is determined to splinter her happy new world.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge.
She is the USA Today bestselling author of 17 books, including the Causal Enchantment, Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series, He Will Be My Ruin, Until It Fades, Keep Her Safe, and The Simple Wild.
Her books have been featured in national publications including USA Today, Globe & Mail, Suspense Magazine, First for Women, and Publisher's Weekly. She has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance 2013 for TEN TINY BREATHS and Best Romance 2018 for THE SIMPLE WILD. Her novels have been translated into 16 languages.
K.A. Tucker currently resides in a quaint town outside of Toronto with her family.
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REVIEW
Be the Girl by K.A. TuckerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: Standalone
Release date: January 21, 2019
Cliffhanger: No
Genre: YA, contemporary romance
This was a really hard one for me to rate. To say that I have mixed feelings is a huge understatement, most especially about the main character Aria. I read a lot of young adult books with teenage characters, so her age isn't an issue in general. I knew this would be set in high school with personalities and problems related to that transitional time in life. It's what you would expect with a coming of age story. I'm not going to lie though, Aria was 15 years old for the majority of the book and at times her personality was more silly than what appeals to me in YA.
✒︎ I tend to zone out and miss notes. I can’t help it, though. He has a hot neck. I didn’t think that was a thing, but it is definitely a thing.
✒︎I think I like Emmett. Like, REALLY like him. But maybe you already guessed that. He’s easily the hottest guy in school. Maybe on earth.
Age appropriate, yes. Relatable to me at this time in my life, no. Her reaction to Emmett was your typical giddy schoolgirl crush on the hot popular jock. It didn't have a huge impact on my overall enjoyment, but I was finding it hard to connect with her because of it. That's just a personal preference though, so it's not going to phase everyone.
On the other hand, Aria seemed to have maturity in some ways that were beyond her years that I respected. After moving to Eastmonte with her mother to start fresh, they meet their new neighbors, Emmett and Cassie Hartford. Cassie is close to their age, but is on the autism spectrum and there is a childlike innocence to her that makes her different than your average high school student. Not only does Aria immediately show her respect, but she goes out of her way to include her and offer her friendship. At school, rather than joining a clique, she befriends people who are a little bit odd. The people whom everyone else doesn't take the time to know as a person before passing judgement and censure. So she may have been a bit giddy, but I really started to warm up to her.
I would say that the main theme of this book is bullying/cyberbullying and it really shed light on the devastation it can cause. So many teens take part in tormenting others and making their life a living hell, and don't think about the consequences of their actions. Treating their hateful behavior as if it's a game, they don't think that the worst possible case scenario can result from what they're doing. With how prevalent this social epidemic is now more than ever on social media, I applaud the author for tackling it.
Everyone has an ugly side. It’s only ever a matter of how well they keep it hidden, and what makes it appear.
Throughout the book, there are lots of clues that Aria has run from some sort of scandal that resulted in some mental health issues. She tries to compartmentalize her old life from her "new" one, and convince herself that with her new school, all of her old problems are erased. In other words, she's in denial big time. Avoiding the uncomfortable feelings she doesn't want to focus on anymore, and trying to reinvent herself. I just knew that somehow the skeletons in her closet would be uncovered, and it was only a matter of time before she had to confront them again. Then the twist finally comes and knocks you off your feet. No way, no how did I expect the secret that she was hiding! It took me completely off guard and shocked me. It was something that had me re-evaluating everything I thought about her up until that point.
I debated with myself if I could even like this heroine after finishing, and whether or not she fully showed character growth to suit me. Some of her actions at her new school showed that despite everything she was trying to put behind her, she still made careless choices she shouldn't have. But I came to the conclusion that I suppose it doesn't really matter what my opinion is of her in the end. The message is impactful, and it was told in a way that makes you sit up and pay attention. Be the Girl explores a lot of light things that typical teens would feel and experience in young love. It also digs into a heavy topic, showing the permanent effect bullying can wreak on lives. It's a story that many will not only appreciate, but need to hear.
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