Being young is all about the experiences: the first time you skip school, the first time you fall in love…the first time someone holds a gun to your head.

After being held hostage during a robbery at the local convenience store, seventeen-year-old Edie finds her attitude about life shattered. Unwilling to put up with the snobbery and bullying at her private school, she enrolls at the local public high school, crossing paths with John. The boy who risked his life to save hers.

While Edie’s beginning to run wild, however, John’s just starting to settle down. After years of partying and dealing drugs with his older brother, he’s going straight—getting to class on time, and thinking about the future.

An unlikely bond grows between the two as John keeps Edie out of trouble and helps her broaden her horizons. But when he helps her out with another first—losing her virginity—their friendship gets complicated.

Meanwhile, Edie and John are pulled back into the dangerous world they narrowly escaped. They were lucky to survive the first time, but this time they have more to lose—each other.

This is Kylie Scott’s first time venturing into YA and I have to say, I loved it! First, let’s define 2017 YA vs. 1997 YA. Back then there was a lot that wasn’t said in YA books and while I appreciated it, I would always say..I never did that as a teen. 2017 YA novels are increasingly telling the truth about what teens (15+) are actually doing( i.e sex, experimenting) and K. Scott captured that perfectly!

Edie is a typical teenager who is doing something typical(getting junk food for an all night movie marathon with her bestie) when her life is change irrevocably. I’m talking life or death changed and I have never been through anything like that but the words conveyed the emotions of the horrific experience Edie had to face entirely. But that wasn’t what made the story great for me; it was the after that kept me reading. How Edie dealt with life, her image, and hero worship after the incident. It was likened to the stages of grief and that is just how Edie saw it; because she was in mourning of her old life and how she was blissfully unaware of the dangers around her, once she was made aware, she couldn’t unsee those things and thus began her fall.
Enter John, the unlikely hero from that fateful night and just the right person to call Edie on her crap and wake her up from her self- destructive behavior. John was the wrong side of the tracks kid but something changed for him that night too and he is determined to not let it change Edie too.
This book/story was such an amazing story and I’m so glad I got to go on this real and emotionally charged journey with these two! IT was told in such a way that I found myself saying, YES! This is what I would have done as a teen! Deff one of those books you just HAVE to own!