The Secret Year

The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book in one day - partly because it wasn't a long book and partly because I had to see how it ended NOW. At times I thought the book might have been better written with adult characters - some of the situations and emotional responses were more adult-like than I think a teenager would be capable of (but I think that a lot about YA novels, so maybe it's just me). The story is well-written and the plot is more emotion driven than action driven. Julia's personality is strongly felt in memories and through her diary, which rounded out the characterization and the story development. Characters were nicely done. Overall a nicely written book.

Synopsis: Take Romeo and Juliet. Add The Outsiders. Mix thoroughly. Colt and Julia were secretly together for an entire year, and no one - not even Julia's boyfriend knew. They had nothing in common, with Julia in her country club world on Black Mountain and Colt from down on the flats, but it never mattered. Until Julia dies in a car accident, and Colt learns the price of secrecy. He can't mourn Julia openly, and he's tormented that he might have played a part in her death. When Julia's journal ends up in his hands, Colt relives their year together at the same time that he's desperately trying to forget her. But how do you get over someone who was never yours in the first place?


Recommended Reading:
Rosebush by Michele Jaffe
Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard
Where It Began by Ann Reddisch Stampler
By the Time You Read This by Julie Ann Peters
Dead to You by Lisa McMann
The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg