Unstuck Pages

Five years.
That’s how long I’ve been gone. Since I left my best friend—the girl I loved—behind.
Five seconds.
That's how long it takes to realize I am completely, utterly, screwed. Because now that I’m back, my childhood crush has turned into so much more.
Rylee has changed. We both have. And now I’m drawn to her in a completely different way. To her smile. Her touch. To reliving old memories and making new ones. To the happiness she’s always given me that I haven’t felt since I left.
But her friends are hell-bent on keeping us apart. My dad is one drink away from destroying both of our lives, and maybe I am, too. It’s only a matter of time before I have to leave again, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I never get a choice.
The one choice I can make? Stay away from Rylee. Because if I don’t, I’ll break her heart—and mine—all over again.

‘Pieces of You and Me’ tells a story of how young lives and friendships are affected in troubled homes. Chase Walsh’s unexpected return in this case – five years since he’d upped and left due to familial circumstances out of his control – proves to be the perfect opportunity for him and his former best friend to pick up the broken pieces of their friendship. And with it, there lies the possibility of something more as both teenagers find their feet in their rapidly expanding world of career and college choices.

There’s the prerequisite level of teenage angst and rebellion that’s entirely expected and the voice/tone of their reflects this perfectly. But Chase’s and Rylee’s anxieties seem more muted than writ large, more mundane than exceptional – for instance, the day-to-day narrative as they tried to hide their newfound relationship from their friends while exploring what they have together – and I found myself looking for a ‘plot direction where there didn’t quite seem to be one up until the conflict truly hits at the three-quarter mark of the book.

This was a quick read nonetheless and a decent look at the fickle nature of friendships; I only wish I could say I’d been more invested in it.

• Related Posts

Wedding Date for Hire by Jennifer Shirk

Devil and the Deep by Julie Ann Walker

Fractured Honor by Kaylea Cross

Going Dark by Monica McCarty

The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker