Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A teenage romantic comedy; great as a light-hearted summer read.

Opening Sentence: Before graduation, I promise to…learn to trust.

The Review:

My first impression of this book was ‘oh my, I feel like I’m stuck in the mind of an immature, hormonal teenage girl!’ BUT the more the story progressed, the more likeable Lyla became and I found myself chuckling at her eccentric personality and bizarre thoughts.

Lyla is the kind of girl who plans and overthinks everything. Her thoughts are often running at a gazillion miles a second and often they digress from what she was originally thinking about. Her scattered thoughts and the fact that nothing ends up going to plan reminded me of Bridget Jones’s Diary.

“Where’s Derrick?” I demand. Crap, I really thought Beckett would still be out on the beach.
But part of you was hoping he’d be here.
Lies, lies, lies! God, my brain is a real mess today. I wonder if I’m coming down with multiple personality disorder. Like, one of my personalities is totally normal and loves Derrick and is excited about this trip. My other personality is some kind of sex-crazed maniac who can’t seem to keep her boobs inside her top and wants to kiss and cheat with every guy she sees.
Not every guy. Just Beckett.
Ahhh!

The element of old friends and broken trust added a realistic touch to the story. I was surprised to learn that Lyla would drop her friends in an instant because she thought they broke her trust. Holding a grudge with your best friends for such a long time was really immature and I was hoping she would have gotten over it by the end of their trip (especially with the email she received from her freshman self). Speaking of the end, the last scene reminded me that this is actually a series, something I completely forgot whilst reading.

And I realize that if I really did love him, I wouldn’t have kissed someone else. Actually, that’s not true. I do love him. But just because you love someone doesn’t mean it’s going to work out. In fact, it doesn’t meant that at all. All it means is that you might have a chance. And honestly, a chance doesn’t mean that much.

I really liked Beckett. He has the whole smart but sexy bad boy thing going on, rides a motorbike and helps Lyla out in more than one sticky situation. He’s also undeterred by Lyla’s craziness and I always swoon when a bad boy becomes semi-good!

“Forget the party,” Beckett says, shaking his head. “Come hang out with me instead.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I say. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Why not?” He seems confused.
“Because,” I cross my arms over my chest and look at him. “You’re creepy.”
“I’m creepy?”
“Yes.” I tick off the reasons on my fingers. “One, you drive a motorcycle. Two, you went through my bag. And three, you have a preoccupation with my swimwear.” I take in another yoga breath. “Not to mention that talking to you is like talking to a three-year-old.”
“Yeah, well, talking to you is like talking to a forty-year-old. You need to loosen up.” But he doesn’t sound mad. Or exasperated. Or anything. He just sounds kind of…amused. And he’s looking at me with this little smirk on his face, like he has a secret about me.

Heat of the Moment was a fun read and it made me smile. Although I felt like tearing my hair out at the start, the main protagonist did end up growing on me, and I’m hoping you’ll feel the same!

Notable Scene:

After a few seconds, I say, “It didn’t mean anything.” The words are hollow, even to me. And as I’m saying them, I know they’re not true. It obviously did mean something. It meant a lot of things. It meant I was cheating on my boyfriend. It meant I was attracted to Beckett. It meant I liked him enough to kiss him, to get upset at him when he brought Katie to the club. It meant everything.

FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Heat of the Moment. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

I wanted to read this because it sounded like a nice summer read but also one that would have some depth. I also love the premise of writing to your older self and seeing how those goals and promises line up with how life turns out three years later.

The friendship between the three is shrouded in her hurt, she feels like they betrayed her trust, and they have been estranged for almost as long as they wrote the emails. Of course, getting the emails they wrote so long ago, and when they were the three musketeers brings back memories and thinking of the others again. They are put in the same room for their senior trip, so being in close quarters again brings out some of their feelings, and the ways they've changed.

The lightness of the story was nice. I have read a lot of really emotional, draining and intense contemporaries lately, so this was a nice change of pace. It didn't deal with completely fluffy issues all of the time, but it was more day to day, everyone has been hurt type things. It gave it just enough depth but also didn't weigh it down and it is def a summery read.

Derrick and Lyla got together right after the explosion of her friendship with Aven and Quinn. So she has made him the center of her recreated world. She has made friends, or some form of it, with the people that he was friends with. He is thoughtful and considerate, that is until the senior trip and the lies she told to cover her butt on what was ultimately innocent until she made it otherwise. I understand that the premise is shaking up her life again, and looking deeper into her trust issues, and to do that she has to realize that she hasn't really fixed them and what she does to cover it up. She tried to convince herself that it was just a vague goal, and that she had worked on her issues, and the problem between her and Derrick really just served as a glaring response that she hadn't really dealt with trusting at all.

Her secret and what her friends did to make her feel betrayed was really only hinted at, even though I had an idea of what may have happened. The synopsis makes it seem like you will need to read all three perspectives to really understand what caused their friendship to end, and reasoning of all of them. I will probably give the others a read. Especially if they go up for grabs as an ARC or if library gets it.

Beckett was typical mysterious bad boy type. He plays with her head a bit, flirts and gives her a nickname. He rides a motorcycle and just hasn't really been much of a presence besides another body taking up a seat in her AP classes. He is funny though, and I do like their chemistry. However, The love triangle. But I guess I can't fault it too much because I knew going in.

I could feel for Lyla, but all of her lies got a little much. I understood more and more why she feels the need to cover things up, but also, it is like I want to pull her aside, Gibbs her with the clipboard and tell her it only makes things worse.

However, I did like how it ended for her, and the road that she was on as far as realizing her faults, and working towards better relationships, and really trusting and giving others a chance.

Bottom Line: Nice summer readc ( )