ARC Review: Be the Girl by K.A. Tucker

Recommended Read!

“I highly recommend you give this one a try as well. Believe me, it’s not going to be your typical YA. It’ll be a punch in the gut when you least expect it.”
~ Under the Covers

When I saw K.A. Tucker had a new book coming out, I didn’t bother reading the blurb. That’s how much I trust that no matter what she writes, no matter the genre, I’m going to enjoy it. BE THE GIRL surprised me because of that. I wasn’t fully prepared for a young adult contemporary going into it. But it had a way of weaving itself into my heart.

Aria Jones is 15-16 years old. Her and her mother just moved in with her uncle. New town, new school and hopefully new life. She doesn’t want any of the ghosts of her past to follow her here and wants to start fresh. But she develops a crush for the boy next door and things slowly start to follow down a path she knows all too well how it can turn out.

I’m generally not the biggest fan of immature characters. Aria is definitely very much a 15-16 year old in the way she thinks, acts, reacts and crushes on the boy of her dreams. Often a bit hard for me to relate. However, it’s easy to care for her and try to solve the mystery of what happened to her. I appreciated how she treated others, especially Emmett’s sister Cassie who is on the autism spectrum. There’s good with the bad about her. The romance with Emmett was cute as well and very fitting for where they are in life.

BE THE GIRL deals with some important and heavy subjects and it’s a thought provoking story about the many sides of bullying. Not about the black and white but the part that makes us all take a step back and think that it’s so easy for all of us to do it, even when we are thinking we are on the “right” side. If there’s one take away from this is to evaluate your choices and always think how the other side feels.

This is also a story that left me very conflicted about how I feel in the end. I don’t really want to give a hint of a spoiler because I think it’s best experienced without having any idea of what’s coming. But let’s just say I’m not sure I can forgive and forget. I think K.A. Tucker told this story and this lesson in a great way and I’ll probably be pondering my feelings on this ending for a while. I highly recommend you give this one a try as well. Believe me, it’s not going to be your typical YA. It’ll be a punch in the gut when you least expect it.

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[about-author author=”K.A. Tucker”]