Review: Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines

Title: Until Friday Night

Author: Abbi Glines

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Series: The Field Party #1

Source: ARC from BEA

Buy: Amazon

Rating: 4 ½ Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

To everyone who knows him, West Ashby has always been that guy: the cocky, popular, way-too-handsome-for-his-own-good football god who led Lawton High to the state championships. But while West may be Big Man on Campus on the outside, on the inside he’s battling the grief that comes with watching his father slowly die of cancer.

Two years ago, Maggie Carleton’s life fell apart when her father murdered her mother. And after she told the police what happened, she stopped speaking and hasn’t spoken since. Even the move to Lawton, Alabama, couldn’t draw Maggie back out. So she stayed quiet, keeping her sorrow and her fractured heart hidden away.

As West’s pain becomes too much to handle, he knows he needs to talk to someone about his father—so in the dark shadows of a post-game party, he opens up to the one girl who he knows won’t tell anyone else.

West expected that talking about his dad would bring some relief, or at least a flood of emotions he couldn’t control. But he never expected the quiet new girl to reply, to reveal a pain even deeper than his own—or for them to form a connection so strong that he couldn’t ever let her go… 

Review:

Anytime a book is compared to Friday Night Lights, it's pretty much a guarantee that I'll be checking it out. High school and football just compels me in a way few other books do, but it seems like they always leave me wanting more. At least that's how I felt until I read UNTIL FRIDAY NIGHT.

This books is everything I crave - romance, sports, angst, family, love, and sacrifice. And learning. Maggie and West learn so much about themselves and each other.

Maggie is such a heroine in this book. Not just West's rock, but truly the anchor of the entire story. She's dealt with and is still dealing with a lot, but she's able to see something in West that draws her out of her shell. It's always easier to focus on others' problems than your own, and that's what Maggie does. She gives West what she never had - a friend, a haven in the storm, and a calming presence.

West is a total wildcard and a bit of an asshat, to be honest. But once you break down those layers, this golden boy will own your heart. It's hard not to root for him, but nothing made me happier than Maggie standing up to him.

SPOILER ALERT:

At one point West gets extremely possessive and jealous seeing Maggie with another guy and he runs the other guy off. Maggie flat out tells him that she's done nothing wrong and his behavior and attachment to her is unhealthy. THIS COMPLETELY MADE ME LOVE THIS BOOK. Any lingering doubt was cast aside here where Maggie puts her foot down and says that sh*t isn't gonna fly with her and they need to take a break. I'm all for an alpha male, but an alpha douche is still a douche.

END SPOILERS

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book. It is a bit graphic for younger teens. The sexuality isn't gratuitously explicit, but it is there. It's very much an upper-YA books and very much a new favorite of mine.