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A review by apagetoturn
The Best Kept Secret by Wendi Nunnery
4.0
My rating: 4.5
The Best Kept Secret is probably one of the most real, while fictional, account of a girl's experience of high school that I've read. High school is not a piece of cake, and I really enjoyed the thought provoking plot that Wendi created within these pages. While a coming of age story, this one seriously breaks the mold of YA and sits in a category all its own for me.
We meet Emma as she is in her sophomore year of high school - a year that is pivotal to social status for these kids. As an adult, reading this book brought back the flood of memories, insecurities, and emotions that I went through during those hard years of learning about who I was and what my place was in the craziness of high school.
Wendi's writing style is so smooth, and her character development is on point. Emma is not your typical whiny high school girl; she was very easy to fight for as I was reading. She has a had time finding her way and while sometimes I didn't agree with choices she made, I still fought for her and for the lessons she would learn through this book. Then there was the boys - Deegan and Jesse. While opposite each other on the popularity scale, both play a huge part in Emma's life and it was interesting to see how she would handle them. Then there is Andy, the long time childhood best friend, who is also struggling through changes in relationships... and Emma's female BFF, Elsie who brings balance to the whole book.
This book was NOT what I thought it would be going into it.... it is not cute, light-hearted and sexy... There is a very serious line underneath the story and some bigger, more serious things come to light - some secrets aren't worth keeping... that's all I'm going to say.
The Best Kept Secret is probably one of the most real, while fictional, account of a girl's experience of high school that I've read. High school is not a piece of cake, and I really enjoyed the thought provoking plot that Wendi created within these pages. While a coming of age story, this one seriously breaks the mold of YA and sits in a category all its own for me.
We meet Emma as she is in her sophomore year of high school - a year that is pivotal to social status for these kids. As an adult, reading this book brought back the flood of memories, insecurities, and emotions that I went through during those hard years of learning about who I was and what my place was in the craziness of high school.
Wendi's writing style is so smooth, and her character development is on point. Emma is not your typical whiny high school girl; she was very easy to fight for as I was reading. She has a had time finding her way and while sometimes I didn't agree with choices she made, I still fought for her and for the lessons she would learn through this book. Then there was the boys - Deegan and Jesse. While opposite each other on the popularity scale, both play a huge part in Emma's life and it was interesting to see how she would handle them. Then there is Andy, the long time childhood best friend, who is also struggling through changes in relationships... and Emma's female BFF, Elsie who brings balance to the whole book.
This book was NOT what I thought it would be going into it.... it is not cute, light-hearted and sexy... There is a very serious line underneath the story and some bigger, more serious things come to light - some secrets aren't worth keeping... that's all I'm going to say.