Category Archives: Realist Fiction

Book Reviews

October 13, 2013 posted by Nichole

Chasing Shadows - by Swati Avasthi & Illustrated by Craig Phillips

Chasing Shadows is a searing look at the impact of one random act of violence.

Before: Corey, Holly, and Savitri are one unit—fast, strong, inseparable. Together they turn Chicago concrete and asphalt into a freerunner’s jungle gym, ricocheting off walls, scaling buildings, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

But acting like a superhero doesn’t make you bulletproof…

After: Holly and Savitri are coming unglued. Holly says she’s chasing Corey’s killer, chasing revenge. Savitri fears Holly’s just running wild—and leaving her behind. Friends should stand by each other in times of crissi. But can you hold on too tight? Too long?

In this intense novel, told in two voices, and incorporating comic-style art sections, Swati Avasthi creates a gripping portrait of two girls teetering on the edge of grief and insanity. Two girls who will find out just how many ways there are to lose a friend . . . and how many ways to be lost.

Chasing Shadows is one of those books that I simply read for the cover. I mean look at that. It’s gorgeous! Before I read the synopsis, I had no idea it was contemporary. And as you know, I’m not the biggest fan of contemporary books. But every now and then, I find a contemporary book that I fall head over heels in love with. This was one of those books.

The thing that most made this book was the pictures. I’ve never read a graphic novel before, but I’m tempted to after looking at Craigh Phillips’s work. I actually found myself speed reading to get to the next frame of pictures. They were amazingly beautiful and so detailed. I was just blown away by the artwork in this book. It also blended very well with the story. You know, even though it switched from page long text to graphic images with bubble text, I still felt 100% in the story. I think it added to it in the sense that I was actually getting to see the characters. After reading this book, I really want to see more graphic images in YA books.

Swati Avasthi’s writing style was also unique and heart wrenching. While she doesn’t really write in poetry (although there were a few occurrences of that,) her writing style reminded me a lot of that of Ellen Hopkins. It was both lyrical and poetic. Whenever I would set this book down, I would find myself craving it. I needed to know what happened next. I needed to get to the next set of pictures. I found myself racing to the end to see what exactly was going to happen next. I loved it. I wish there were more books like this. No other word fits this better than beautiful.

There’s nothing really negative to say about Chasing Shadows, but I did wish that it stroked more emotion from me. The best contemporary novels have made me cry, and this one didn’t quite hit that level for me. I was completely invested in the characters, but I needed just a little bit of something else to trigger the water works. Some people might wonder WHY I would want to cry, but I’ve found that a contemporary book that makes you cry is one to keep with you forever. Crying means that that book was it’s best. And I feel like maybe…just maybe…this one needed a little more to be perfection.

Chasing Shadows is 100% realistic contemporary. It deals with trauma, friendship, loyalty, and mental illness. I’ll admit it, I’ve never read about mental illness before. Quite frankly, it scares the living daylights out of me. And since I’m not the biggest fan of contemporary, I don’t really immerse myself in that type of environment. Reading about it in Chasing Shadows was very intense and a little hard sometimes. This book had twists and turns that I didn’t really see coming (and some that I did,) and I just felt emotionally exhausted after I finished it. After I finished it, all I could think is that this is something that I would want my students to be reading. I think that this book sends a great message to young adults, and it is just perfect for teenagers all over the world to read. It was so freaking beautiful.

This book came out in September, so it SHOULD be available at your local bookstores and libraries. I would encourage every single person, whether you’re a contemporary fan or not, to go read this book. I’m not a contemporary fan, and I loved it. And I think that this is a great book to immerse yourself in artwork and excellent for fans of graphic novels. I loved it. I hope you love it, too.

Pages: 320

Publication Date: September 24th 2013

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “Corey did handstands four flights up, Holly crawled into someone else’s skin, and I swallowed stones of guilt just to hide from a simple fact: we are all vulnerable, and there is nothing between us and a bullet. It’s terrifying, this life. It’s precarious, it’s random un-design.”

Book Reviews

September 23, 2013 posted by Nichole

Wild Cards - Simone Elkeles

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain-people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

Unlike a lot of contemporary fans, I haven’t read very much by Simone Elkeles. Long before I started my huge reading craze, I read one of her books. I think it was Perfect Chemistry. I remember that I liked it, but it was sooooo long ago. Everyone else was so excited for this book, and I knew that I had to read it just because of that. Unfortunately, I didn’t like this book. I didn’t even finish this book. I think I got about 100 pages into it, and then I was done. I skimmed the rest. I’m not going to be rating this book, but I’ll tell you guys what I didn’t like about it.

Wild Cards stars out really good. It’s a story about a football player, Ashtyn, who has just been made captain of her team. Her sister, who she hasn’t seen in about 8 years, has finally moved back home….and she brought along two additional packages: her 5-year-old son and her stepson, Derek. Ashtyn instantly feels a spark with Derek and fights it by treating him like he’s basically dirt under her foot. Then, Ashtyn’s boyfriend betrays her and the team by switching schools to be the captain of their rival team, and Ashtyn’s relationship with Derek begins to grow.

The beginning relationship between Ashtyn and Derek is both funny and cute. All the snide remarks topped by the sweet gestures every now and then were a great starter for what was to come. Derek, especially, was a great character! He was hot, smart (a smartass, really!), dedicated, loyal, and just sweet. He had a total bad boy act going on that many girls are going to love. If all of the characters had been like Derek, this book would have been a major hit. Unfortunately, Ashtyn was a whole other issue. She was whiney, annoying, bitchy, spoiled, and just an overall obnoxious character. I found myself cringing every single time that she came on the page. She just wasn’t someone that I wanted to read about.

My major issue with this book was how choppy it was. It literally seemed like a group of people in an acting class rehearsing their lines. There were very short simple sentences, the characters didn’t seem to have the chemistry that I really wanted to see, and the supporting characters failed to impress me. It’s pretty choppy all throughout the book. I think the beginning might have been a bit better because that’s when Derek’s bad boy personality is at its peak. It starts dying down around page 60, though.

Overall, I wasn’t a fan of this book, and I will not be continuing this series. I would encourage contemporary fans to give it a shot, especially younger teens.

If you like this book, then try out:

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pages: 288

Publication Date: September 24th, 2013

Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers

Source: ARC provided by publisher

Rating: N/A

Prep School Confidential (Prep School Confidential #1) – Kara Taylor

Book of the Month

September 4, 2013 posted by Nichole

Prep School Confidential (Prep School Confidential #1) - Kara Taylor

In this breathtaking debut that reads like Gossip Girl crossed with Twin Peaks, a Queen Bee at a blue-blooded New England prep school stumbles into a murder mystery.

Anne Dowling practically runs her exclusive academy on New York’s Upper East Side—that is, until she accidentally burns part of it down and gets sent to a prestigious boarding school outside of Boston. Determined to make it back to New York, Anne couldn’t care less about making friends at the preppy Wheatley School. That is, until her roommate Isabella’s body is found in the woods behind the school.

When everyone else is oddly silent, Anne becomes determined to uncover the truth no matter how many rules she has to break to do it. With the help of Isabella’s twin brother Anthony, and a cute classmate named Brent, Anne discovers that Isabella wasn’t quite the innocent nerdy girl she pretended to be. But someone will do anything to stop Anne’s snooping in this fast-paced, unputdownable read—even if it means framing her for Isabella’s murder.

I have to admit, I was so nervous to read Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor. It really comes down to the cover. The cover is beautiful! But it looks cheesy….so I avoided it. I received an EARC from Kara’s publisher, and I decided to give it a go. Boy, am I glad I did. I LOVED this book! It was fresh, edgy, and it made me jump more than once. Not only that, but way to go Kara! I would have NEVER guessed the ending of this book. And usually I’m pretty good at that kind of stuff! Fans of Gossip Girl and Gretchen McNeil are going to devour this book. Good thing I’m a fan of both!

Some people have said that they didn’t like Anne’s character. Okay…I can understand that. I didn’t love Anne nor did I dislike her. Honestly, I really didn’t focus much on her, because while she is the main character, the book’s not really about her. It’s all about finding Isabella’s murderer. And if you’re anything like me and LOVE murder mysteries, this book is for you. I thought I new who the killer was from like chapter 4 or 5. I was dead set on this person, and they weren’t even mentioned at the end. I don’t think they had anything to do with it. I ended up laughing at myself about how wrong I was and how I didn’t even make a connection. I didn’t even see any clues that led up to that! Let’s just say….Izzy wasn’t such a good girl after all.

Toward the beginning of this book, I was super annoyed that it wasn’t paranormal. Even now, I would have liked to see a paranormal twist or theme in this book, because I think that it would have bumped it up to 5 stars. Maybe that’s just because I’m a bigger paranormal fan than contemporary, but I honestly think that would have just been the icing on the cake. I wanted vampires, fae…maybe even werewolves. It just….needed it. But, it didn’t ruin it. This book was still amazing.

The one thing that did annoy me was the love triangle….if you even want to call it that. I don’t have the book right next to me, so I hope that I don’t butcher any names, but Anthony and Brent….yeah. First of all, Brent was annoying. Second of all, Anthony was described as like the hottest guy ever, but he wasn’t written like that. Every time he had a scene I thought of Chloe’s boyfriend in The Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong. Geeky, pimple faced, quiet, reserved. He just didn’t appear that gorgeous. It was a bit off-putting when he was described as so pretty. But most of all, I couldn’t stand Anne when it came to these boys. She was so all over the place. Maybe that would have worked for a younger teenager or even in Junior High. But as a Junior in high school, she shouldn’t have been quite as annoying with those boys as she was.

Another thing that dropped a couple points in this book was how many errors there were regarding school rules and laws. By the end of the book it didn’t bug me, because I was able to acknowledge that this was a prep school full of rich kids. The school was meant to be a school that broke the rules. But when I would see something happen that is so illegal, I would cringe. I’m not sure if that was supposed to be the case every single time it happened, so it’s hard to judge it. But it did bug me…

Overall, I LOVED this book. I’m itching for the next one already ]= Contemporary lovers who like to indulge themselves in mystery are going to adore this book. Definitely give this one a shot! And make sure to stay tuned in October when Prep School Confidential will be our Book of the Month!

Pages: 304

Publication Date: July 30th, 2013

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Source: Ecopy provided by publisher.

Rating: :

Tempting the Best Man (Gamble Brothers #1) – J Lynn

Book Reviews

August 29, 2013 posted by Nichole

Tempting the Best Man (Gamble Brothers #1) - J Lynn

Madison Daniels has worshipped her brother’s best friend since they were kids. Everyone thinks she and Chase Gamble would make the perfect couple, but there are two major flaws in their logic. 1) Chase has sworn off relationships of any kind, and 2) after blurring the line between friends and lovers for one night four years ago, they can’t stop bickering.

Forced together for her brother’s wedding getaway, Chase and Madison decide to call a truce for the happy couple. Except all bets are off when they’re forced to shack up in a tacky 70′s honeymoon suite and survive a multitude of “accidents” as the family tries to prove their “spark” can be used than for more than fighting. That is, if they don’t strangle each other first…

A week after reading this book, I’m having a really hard time even remembering it. That probably doesn’t say much about it, huh? I normally read and love everything that J. Lynn a.k.a Jennifer L Armentrout writes, but this book just didn’t cut it for me. The writing was poor, the characters were annoying, and the story was just way too short.

I was so shocked that Armentrout wrote this. Normally, I can tell apart Armentrout’s writing from the rest. She has this snarky, funny quality to all of her writing that just screams her name? But this book? This book screamed a 99 cent Harlequin Romance book that you can find on the bottom shelf in the used book store. Harsh? Maybe. But it’s the truth!

The characters just didn’t do it for me. Maybe if the story would have been longer, then I would have had a better chance of connecting with them, but I really wasn’t the biggest fan of them. I honestly think that it just comes down to character development. There wasn’t enough time to fall in love with anyone in the story.

As for the story, like I said, it was just too short. The characters were weak, the writing was poor, and the whole story had a super cheesy feel to. All of this comes down to the story just not being long enough. I didn’t have enough time to fall in love with anyone, and I was being forced to accept a relationship that I had no time to gain an interest in.

When I look at my Goodreads, I can see that a lot of my blogger friends rated this book 4-5 stars. So, maybe there is something to it! Unfortunately, this book just was not for me.

Pages: 172

Publication Date: April 23rd 2012

Publisher: Indulgence (Entangled)

Source: Ebook

Rating: :

Book Reviews

August 27, 2013 posted by Nichole

DNF: The Moon and More - Sarah Dessen

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo’s sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline’s mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he’s convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she’s going?

Sarah Dessen’s devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

This month I ended up participating in the Secret Readers, which is an event where a “secret” blogger picks out a book from your TBR shelf and you need to have it read by the end of the month. The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen was chosen for me. This was my first Sarah Dessen book. It’s no secret that I usually avoid contemporary books at all costs, so I did moan and groan a little bit about having this one chosen for me (I really need to create my own TBR shelf and not use our standard Goodreads one.) When The Moon and More first started out, I was hooked. It was light, fluffy, and just really relaxing. However, the book lost its appeal around page 50, and it became boring as hell. I ended up skimming a large portion of this book for several different reasons.

My first complaint is with the characters. Not only was there not one character that I enjoyed, but I hated two of the main characters, Emaline and Theo. Emaline was bland and uptight. Instead of really seeing her and knowing who she was as a character, she was really just words on a page for me. I found Theo to be repulsive and rude. He never knew when to shut up, he was impulsive, he harassed every single person he talked to..I just…I didn’t like him. All of the other characters just sort of blended together and there was just really no one to like.

I have to ask…..WHERE was the story? There was no story. The whole book went like this: Wake up, go to work, fight with one of the boys, fight or argue with family, complain about life, complain, complain, whine, whine, whine, go to work. I’m not just talking about Emaline. I’m including everyone. It was just a hodge podge of a mess and there was really nothing to get excited about. There was no climax to the story, no emotional moments. I pretty much read this book with a bored expression on my face.

Those looking for romance are going to be sorely disappointed. Emaline has relationships with both Theo and Luke, but they both end badly. The Moon and More is really more about family, friendship, and finding oneself. I think that a little bit of romance would have added a bit more spark to this book. And I’m not going to count Emaline and Theo’s…whatever they had, because I hated both of them. I didn’t care about them. And it pretty much ended for them exactly how I thought it would.

Overall, I thought this book was very boring. There was no excitement, the characters sucked, and I just didn’t understand the whole point of it. Yeah, it’s a summer read, but I want at least a little bit of excitement in my books. And I don’t like open ended books that end more realistically. That’s the thing. This book is realistic and people who like that will enjoy it. People who want romance and a finished ending will not enjoy this book. That was me. I wanted more, and I just didn’t like it very much.

Pages: 435

Publication Date: June 4th 2013

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Rating: N/A due to DNF. Would give it about a 1 1/2 based on what I read.

Teaser Quote: “Life is long. Just because you don’t get your change right when you want or expect it doesn’t mean it won’t come. Fate doesn’t punch a time clock or consult a schedule.”

Book Reviews

August 24, 2013 posted by Nichole

Frigid - J Lynn

For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn’t anything new. They’d been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the ‘man’ in man-whore. He’s never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn’t want to risk their friendship by declaring her love.

Kyler has always put Syd on a pedestal that was too high for him to reach. To him, she’s perfect and she’s everything. But the feelings he has for her, he’s always hidden away or focused on any other female. After all, Kyler will always be the poor boy from the wrong side of tracks, and Syd will always be the one girl he can never have.

But when they’re stranded together at a posh ski resort due to a massive Nor’easter, there’s nothing stopping their red-hot feelings for each other from coming to the surface. Can their friendship survive the attraction? Better yet, can they survive at all? Because as the snow falls, someone is stalking them, and this ski trip may be a life-changer in more ways than one.

This month I went through like a week long phase where I wanted to read nothing but mushy new adult romances, and my target was J Lynn, also known as Jennifer L. Armentrout. I suck….I haven’t been trying out much books in the New Adult genre. I don’t know if I’ve really read any until now. They make me nervous, okay! When I think New Adult, it almost makes me thing of teen pornish stuff. I was wrong. I admit it! I was wrong. Please stop yelling at me now. New adult is definitely more sexy and…well…steamy…but it’s with adults! Honestly, little kids and younger teens probably shouldn’t be reading this stuff. I’m not for book censorship, but I definitely think that adults should take an interest in what their kids are reading. Back to the point, though, I was like obsessed for a week with new adult books. I’m highly anticipating another week full of smut, but I have no idea which New Adult author to try out next /= Frigid wasn’t as good as Wait For You, but I was still obsessed with it, and I had it finished in less than 48 hours. The characters were lovable (for the most part), the plot was definitely interesting AND steamy, and the writing was amazing. On the downside, the ending wasn’t that great, and, once again, the female character bugged me!

I don’t know how Armentrout does it, but ALL of her male characters are amazing. I don’t care what book it is, I always fall in love with her male characters. Kyler was hunky, fit, smart, sexy, caring, loyal, honest. He was everything that I could possibly ask for in a guy. It made it that much better that Kyler and Syd had been best friends their whole lives. I mean…come on. What girl out there doesn’t dream about falling in love with her best friend? It was just too cute! On the downside, Syd wasn’t my favorite character. Armentrout might create brilliant male characters, but I have never fallen in love with ANY of her female characters. They all turn out whiney, dramatic, and way too innocent. I want to see Armentrout create some fabulous kick ass female character. Not someone who is about to break apart at the drop of a pen.

Everything in this book was amazing and addicting except for the ending. Like in Wait For You, the ending tanked. It was too predictable and wayyyyyyy overdramatic. Whenever I start a contemp book of Armentrout’s, I usually know what’s going to happen at the end of the book by like the first 3 chapters. Just because you write contemporary does NOT mean that it has to be so predictable. Add a little twist! Do something that readers won’t expect! Yes, contemporary books help readers relate to reality, but having such a predictable ending almost makes me feel like the author think I’m stupid. Just do something a little out of the norm for once!

Even though the ending wasn’t that great, I did love the book. Not as much as other books that Armentrout has written, but I did enjoy it. Not to mention that Kyler was just too amazing to pass up. I was a big fan of this book!

Pages: 240

Publication Date: July 15th 2013

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary

Source: Ebook

Rating: :

Book Reviews

August 12, 2013 posted by Nichole

Wait for You - J Lynn

Some things are worth waiting for…

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing…

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet…

But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

And some things are worth fighting for…

Wait for You is one of the most beautiful, heartfelt, and sizzling books that I have ever read. It’s about a girl named Avery who has experienced a traumatic event in her hometown of Texas, and she ends of moving thousands of miles from home to go to college simply to get away from her family and her past that haunts her. Things don’t go quite as she planned, though, and soon she’s receiving threatening emails, calls, and texts from an unknown number.

Cameron Hamilton, a.k.a Cam, goes to school with Avery, and they run into each other (literally) on their was to astronomy. From there, feelings develop and Cam becomes a permanent role in Avery’s life. With Avery’s past, things don’t go quite as smooth for them, and Avery must learn to let go of her past if she’s going to keep Cam in her life.

That description I just gave doesn’t even come close to giving this book justice. This was seriously one of the best books that I’ve read this year. I have a new book boyfriend in Cam, and let me tell you…I’m still mourning this book. It was one of those books that I just could not put down. It got to the point where it was interfering with my school work, and finally I just had to force myself to put it down so I didn’t fail the class. Even then, it wasn’t my best work since I was scrambling to get back to this book asap.

I have to hand it to J Lynn, because Cam is one of the best male characters I have read about. He was snarky, gorgeous, all man, and sensitive all in one package. He was always there for Avery. It was even nice to see the little boy in him peek out every now and then. I didn’t love him nearly as much once he and Avery got together. The snarkiness that Jennifer L. Armentrout is known for started to leak out of him just a little bit. The whole “I’m your boyfriend” act was a little annoying…but I still loved him. It seems to be a constant theme in most of her contemporary writing, though, that her male characters lose some of their appeal in the last 100 or so pages.

As for Avery, I wasn’t the biggest fan of hers. She didn’t bug me during the first half, but honestly, I was too focused on Cam to even pay her that much attention. The last half of the book, she got on my nerves quite a bit. She was whiny, depressing, and way too involved with Cam if she couldn’t even realize that she was fine on her own. I mean, I know she missed him (not giving away too much), but get yourself together woman! That seems to be another theme in Armentrout’s books. The girls depend soooo much on the male characters. For once, I just want to see her write about this strong female lead who depends only on herself. It’s fine to have a male love interest. Heck, it’s even wanted! But I for once want to see the female survive on her own.

As you can probably tell from my comments above, the last 100 pages of this book were kind of a dud. Those pages actually took it from a 5 to a 4. It became to mushy and depressing. It was also really sad to see this wonderful writing go to just okay writing. And it was horrifying to watch Cam’s character lose some of his appeal from the beginning. I still liked the book….but it was sad to watch it die down a little /=

Overall, I was a big fan of this book. I had a week where I read nothing but Armentrout’s/Lynn’s work. It was wonderful! I would encourage everyone to go read this book. I’m pretty sure that it’s only out in ebook, but I wouldn’t hold me to that if I were you. Whatever the case, go read this book! And make sure you let me know if you love Cam just as much as I do [;

Pages: 332 pages

Publication Date: February 26th 2013

Publisher: Avon

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “And this must be Avery?”

“Oh, God, no,” Cam said. “This is Candy, Mom.”

His mother’s eyes widened and a bit of color infused her cheeks. “Uh, I’m…”

“I’m Avery,” I said, shooting Cam a look. “You had it right.”

She spun around, smacking Cam across the arm. Hard, too. “Cameron! Oh my God. I thought…” She smacked him again and he laughed. “You’re terrible.”