Abi and the Boy Next Door by Kelsie Stelting

My edition: Kindle Unlimited
Pages: 372
Series: Texas High: Abi #1
Genre: YA, Romance, Sport
Published: Dec. 8, 2018
Rating: 2.5 stars

Synopsis:

It’s the first day at my new school and I already have a wide load sticker on my back.

But this is still better than life was before. Before I was taken away from my parents. Before I moved in with my grandma.

Before I met Jon Scoller.

He’s cute, he lives down the street, but the guy asks way too many questions. Questions about a past I’d rather forget.

And I am not his type. He needs to be with a cheerleader. A perfect girl. Someone who doesn’t look like the before picture for a weight loss shake.

Jon makes me feel like I’m more than a number on the scale, but I’m starting to wonder: does he feel the same way or does he just feel sorry for me?

Review:

I have read a book series by Kelsie before. They were super cute though had a few characters who fat-shamed. I am not opposed to some characters fat-shaming due to people in real life fat shame. So it stays realistic to me. What I don’t like is when an author fat-shames and makes it a point to do so.

I don’t know if it’s just the two small-town schools I went to in my life or if fiction is just exaggerated. I feel like in most books there seems to only be one plus-sized person in the school. Sorry but that wasn’t how it was at either of the schools I went to. Also, our jocks had some big boys. They weren’t all 6 feet and muscles for days. Just saying.

And while I am ranting, if you are not where you want to be with weight, no matter how much you weigh, please don’t starve yourself. Also, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and managing weight won’t be done in a week. Please give yourself some time. I am having to remind myself of this because I’m not back to where I was before JB. I have to remember that JB is only six months. While some women can bounce back after a baby, I’m not them and my body needs time.

Anyway sorry for the rant. On to the actual review. Abi is living with her grandma after her abusive parents are put in jail. Abi lives down the street from Jon. She makes friends with a girl named Stormy on the first day. Abi is a plus-sized girl who hates herself and her weight.

I love that even though Abi hates herself, she does seem to work to better herself. She isn’t a heroine that the author made to self-pity herself or to try and get attention. I love when characters try to better themselves. It makes me not want to smack them.

Now Jon and Abi… I don’t see the attraction she has for him. He hasn’t really done anything to get the almost stalker vibe from her. I just don’t get what she sees in him. While I am glad Abi tries to better herself, I don’t like the thoughts she has about herself.

Porker dead, choked on pork.

She isn’t nice to herself. And that makes me a bit mad. I understand she doesn’t like her weight but that doesn’t mean she has the right to dig on herself. I also understand that with the way her mom was that it’s ingrained in her brain to think the worst of herself. So I guess I can let that slide.

I don’t know if I will put the second book on my TBR. I wasn’t too thrilled with the book.

The Dry by Jane Harper

My edition: Kindle Unlimited w/ audiobook
Pages: 329
Time/Narrator: 10 hours/ Stephen Shanahan
Series: Aaron Falk #1
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Published: Jan. 2, 2018
Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis:

A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke’s death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds in bleed into new ones.

Review:

I have this on both kindle unlimited and audio. I read most of the book and then listened to the end while cooking dinner, Wy played his video game, and JB (our son) played in his walker.

I highly suggest reading this instead of listening. It helps when the book goes into a flashback. There were a couple of times I got a bit lost but then realized it was a flashback. But the audio is still good. I just feel like it’s a book that needs to be physically in front.

I am in the minority when it comes to this book. I liked it and the ending was one that I didn’t guess. Though I feel like it didn’t live up to the hype. At first, while an easy read I wasn’t interested. I didn’t have the feeling of I needed to know who did it. I didn’t have that feeling of being on the edge of my seat. I missed what everyone else raved about in their reviews.

Great writing. Just didn’t live up to the hype for me.