This book is #5, in The Field Party series.  This book can be read as a standalone novel.  To avoid spoilers, and have a better understanding of the series, I recommend reading this series in order.

 

Ryker can have any woman he wants.  He knows it, they know it.  With the new school year brings Aurora, a teammates sister.  He is drawn to her and they connect quickly.

 

Aurora is deaf.  This is her first chance to go to a "regular" school.  She wants to be part of the normal her football hero twin gets to have. Only her brother is overprotective and her father is overcontrolling.

 

Surprises are in store for many of the characters in this story,  I love that we revisit our favorites,  This series is fast becoming a favorite of mine!  Looks become the new banter in this installment, and the sexy is so amazingly hot!  The main characters do not know what hit them as they try to navigate high school and first love.  I give this a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

This is book #4, in The Field Party series.  This book can be read as a standalone novel.  For reader understanding, and to avoid spoiler, I recommend reading this series in order.

 

Tallulah is one fat joke away from losing it.  When she hears the love of her life laughing with someone about her looks, it is really the final straw.  She makes some well timed changes and sets up a plan.

 

Nash had always been protective of Tallulah.  He made no secret of their friendship.  Now, when the "NEW" Tallulah comes to school and ignores him, it is like a knife to the chest.  On top of everything else that is going on........

 

This book was the best yet in the series.  I love the real feelings and simple truths.  These characters were already on their way to being in love and the year of pain just simply sealed the deal.  I love that we still have access to our other fave characters too.  This is a 5/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

Goodreads Synopsis: In the follow-up to Abbi Glines’s #1 New York Times bestseller Until Friday Night—three teens from a small southern town are stuck in a dramatic love triangle.

Willa can’t erase the bad decisions of her past that led her down the path she’s on now. But she can fight for forgiveness from her family. And she can protect herself by refusing to let anyone else get close to her.

High school quarterback and town golden boy Brady used to be the best of friends with Willa—she even had a crush on him when they were kids. But that’s all changed now: her life choices have made her a different person from the girl he used to know.

Gunner used to be friends with Willa and Brady, too. He too is larger than life and a high school football star—not to mention that his family basically owns the town of Lawton. He loves his life, and doesn’t care about anyone except himself. But Willa is the exception—and he understands the girl she’s become in a way no one else can.

As secrets come to light and hearts are broken, these former childhood friends must face the truth about growing up and falling in love…even if it means losing each other forever.

 

 

Review:

 

I was really disappointed in this book. I loved the first book in the series and was so excited to read the next instalment. Unfortunately it just did not live up to my expectations.

 

I struggled to find redeeming qualities of this story as all the storylines were too far fetched and overly dramatic. Firstly, I thought through being in all 3 (Willa, Brady and Gunner) of their heads it would provide a greater insight into their dynamic but instead all we got were the two boys internally fighting for Willa and both thinking they know whats best for her….boring! Their internal monologue was so back and forth, first Brady couldn’t have Willa because he could never understand pain like hers but then Gunner couldn’t have her either because his life was too messed up and he would end up hurting her, neither of them were capable of another thought that didn’t revolve around Willa!! The 3 of them were best friends when they were younger yet we didn’t get a single scene of the 3 of them hanging out together. Gunner and Willa would shut Brady out because he has “a perfect home life and can’t handle darkness” since when does your home life determine whether you can be a good friend! This was just too ridiculous.

 

Then there’s Gunners family, just wow! Talk about drama overload. So his dad wasn’t his dad and it was bad enough who his real dad was but what really annoyed me was we never got an explanation from his mom. I know she explained things to Gunner behind the scenes but I would have really liked to have heard the explanation for why she was the way she was and didn’t care for Gunner. I feel it would have made a better story if his mom had loved him and it could have been the two of them against the rest of the family. I suppose that wouldn’t have fit with his “I’ve never felt loved” thing but I just couldn’t buy both of his parents not caring and his whole family being a dramatic mess.

 

Willa’s grandmother was also being way overprotective. Yes she made a mistake and it had horrible consequences but her grandmother needed to let her spend time with her friends and trust that she wasn’t going to get knocked up like her mom (which had nothing to do with the mistake she made). Keeping her from socialising was not going to help her move on with her life. I also felt that Willa never actually dealt with what happened to her. She went through something very traumatic yet it was just something else that took a backseat to the love triangle.

 

We had all this drama throughout the book and then voila last chapter everything gets worked out...how convenient. It ended quite abruptly and left us with so many unanswered questions! Brady never even found out about Willa and Gunner, some friends they were.

 

I hate to do this but I had to give it 2.5 stars as there was absolutely no character development, it was way too whiney and too focused on the love triangle that everything else was sort of brushed to the side. I’m really hoping the next book will be more in line with the first and doesn’t leave me down like this one did.

Eh, the characters are okay in this one but I really felt like the plot was wayyy too over dramatic to enjoy. I partially think its because I'm not a teen any more so I had more qualms with how the characters reacted to situations then I may have ten years ago.

 

Maggie doesn't speak anymore, not since she watched her mother die. Now she's living with her cousin Brady and her aunt and uncle. West is the star of the football team and Brady's best friend. But no one knows he's watching his father die at home. When Maggie and West meet there's an immediate connection. Problem is, Brady has warned the entire football team to stay away from his cousin....

 

This isn't really anything new in contemporary YA, jock is a jerk, girl is a bit of a Mary Sue. The two fall in love almost at first sight...yada yada.

 

It's definitely more for mature teens as it deals with death in the family and there are some sexual scenes throughout.

I really enjoyed this book. I am a big Abbi Glines fan, and this one of my favorites that I have read. The way Willa lost her friend, I lost someone close to me the same way, so I know that kind of pain. I don't like to give away spoilers in my reviews, so I won't say who she ends up with, but I am sooo glad of who it is. My only complaint about this book is the ending. Yeah it was the end part was cute in the way they kept their promise to each other and everything came back to where it started six years before, I wish there was just a little bit more after that. Maybe graduation and see a little bit more of their HEA.