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Review

4.5 stars

I fell in mad love with the Prep series and its characters after reading the fabulous Misfit, and I have been desperate to get my hands on this book! The second book in the series, this is a coming of age story full of friendship, family, love, hate, secrets, revenge, betrayal, mystery and intrigue, and with a bunch of amazing characters telling their parts of the story, I loved it!

Though this book focusses on different characters, this is a multi-POV book, and a direct follow-on from Misfit, and you must read the books in order to properly follow the story. The characters in this book are all inter-related and closely intertwined, and the dynamics between them are absolutely fantastic! There are lots of complex and well-developed connections between them all, and I loved losing myself the intensity of their lives once again.

This book is the story of Casey and Fenn. They’re already together at the beginning of this book, and they’re enjoying a slow, friends-to-lovers romance. Casey is finally getting her life back on track after she almost died in a car accident, and while so much of that night is still a mystery to her, her father and sister are starting to give her some space, and though she’s still teased at school, Fenn provides the perfect escape – there for her, and bringing happiness and excitement back into her world. But Fenn has a secret, and it’s a big one.

I loved Fenn in Misfit, and loved seeing him as a romantic hero. He is so sweet and patient with Casey, and you can see just how much he cares about her. His big secret was the cliffhanger of the first book, and I loved getting so see his perspective on it all. But still, we knew this was going to be a big bomb to drop, and damn, was it ever!

Learning Fenn’s secret throws Casey’s world into complete chaos. It triggers a massive shift in her and, tired of being pushed around and of the people trying to control her, Casey hits her limit. The quiet, coddled girl is no longer, now she’s breaking rules, fighting back and undertaking a fantastic exploration of sarcasm, snark, and teenage rebellion. It’s so awesome watching the huge changes in her as she tries so hard to move on from her who she used to be, learning to stand up for herself and live her own life. And though it’s painful for the people that love her to see such a huge change, I could completely understand her need to go a bit wild, and I revelled in it with her.

But Fenn is miserable watching the girl he cares so much about spiral out of control, so he starts to look more into what happened the night of Casey’s accident, thinking that finally getting the answers will help Casey heal and move on – and forgive him for his betrayal. And with his step-brother, RJ and Casey’s sister, Sloane also trying to figure it all out, we also get to check in on them as the story unfolds in twists and reveals.

Meanwhile, life at Sandover Prep continues, RJ is dealing with being the new king on campus, party boy Lawson is bored and looking for a new challenge, and Silas is wrestling with some pretty revealing demons of his own, and showing his a-hole side while doing it. We continue to get chapters from their POVs which I really enjoyed, because there are big shifts happening, and I cannot wait to see where Lawson and Silas’ stories are going to go.

Though they make mistakes, and don’t always handle situations well, they’re all growing up, and all of the different aspects of the story combine to create a glorious soap opera of drama, friendship, love, anger, frustration, teenage hormones and bad decisions, and I could not get enough of it.

The romance takes a back seat for Casey’s coming of age story and all of the drama of the boys’ lives, but I still really enjoyed this one.

4.5 stars!

I listened to this as an audiobook, which has multi-cast narration. Featuring Carolyn Kang, Nelson Hobbs, Lee Samuels, Christian Fox, Jason Clarke, and Stella Bloom., each of the characters have their own unique voice, and I loved it!

 

Prep