ABOUT THE BOOK
Miley Fuller has life all mapped out.
But when the first day of senior year rolls around, and not everyone has forgotten her betrayal, Miley knows it’s going to take a lot more than ‘I’m sorry’ to fix things.
Avery Chase has his sights set on football.
But the star quarterback is about to find himself working with the one girl he resents more than anything.
It starts with a shaky truce. Unite forces to repair the damage caused by Miley’s expose on the team and help her finish her college submission.
He’s everything she despises.
She’s everything he’s supposed to hate. Only they both have too much riding on their senior year to quit.
But the problem with faking it… sometimes it becomes real.
MY REVIEW
The prequel to the Rixon High series is full of teenage angst, bullying, and a love/hate relationship. It’s intriguing because the book nerd is the betrayer and the football jock is the betrayed.
The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.
It was his senior year. Avery is the Rixon football quarterback who is deemed to lead the team to victory. No pressure, right? If that isn’t all, he hasn’t told his dad that he plans to go to Notre Dame and not Michigan, his dad’s alma mater. He’s living his dad’s dream that never happened and he feels like he will let him down. And finally, the book nerd. She betrayed him last year by writing a scathing expose on the preferential treatment of the football team in Rixon. And now she is being directed by his coach and the principal to shadow the team, namely him, to get the other side of the story. He hates her. He doesn’t trust her. He wants her.
I was the girl who dared to go up against the Rixon Raiders, and now I had to pay the price.
Miley is the head editor of the school newspaper; a position she earned through the article that ostracized her from the whole town. She did it for her career and for her only shot at getting into Northwestern which has one of the best writing programs in the country. The bullying is rampant and the one person she wants despises her. No amount of groveling will change his mind. Betrayal is lonely, but she won’t back down from a challenge and accepts her fate to write another article for the coach and principal. Can she put her feelings aside and get the story, or will Avery break her heart?
There is a lot of hate from Avery and I was interested to see how the author softened his resolve around Miley. When Miley saved Lily from a bunch of bullying girls, it turned the tide on their feelings. Avery saw the compassionate and kind side of Miley that put her in a new light for him. It’s understandable for him to be personally betrayed by her because the year before she pretended to be someone she wasn’t by becoming a cheerleader and spying on the team, but I’m angry that he allows everyone else (including his best friend) to bully her. That’s not cool. Basically, she told the truth, but she did need to report on how hard the team practiced for a game, and that they weren’t all party gods skipping classes. Miley really felt bad about what she did to Avery. His confusion over his feelings for her were hard to understand when he was passionate with her one minute and pushing her away the next. When she was on her last straw and walked away, I was glad. She was really bullied and humiliated by so many. Yes, there’s a grand gesture by Avery to get her back that was okay, but I think Miley needed more and the book left me hanging.
Supporting characters include Lily and Ashleigh (Avery’s little sis) who are good friends to Miley when she needs someone. Avery’s buddy, Micah, is an asshole to Miley by drugging and humiliating her at a party and both Miley and Avery eventually just blew it off at the end. Then there is the token cheerleader mean girl Kendall who has the hots for Avery and is all for shaming Miley in front of the whole school.
Apparently, this is a spin-off prequel novella from the Rixon Raiders series and it is frustrating that there are unclarified things happening in this short story. What are Avery’s Uncle Xander’s “issues” and why wasn’t he at Avery’s Homecoming game? What happened to Lily in junior high? Did Miley get her scholarship? What about Miley’s dad? Consider this a happy-for-now ending.
Overall, I think Miley and Avery needed their own full-length story, but short or not, it kept me reading until the end. I can’t wait for Lily’s story.
Rixon High Series:
0.5 Blurred Lines (2021)
1. Off-Limits (2021)
2. Tragic Lies (2021)
Reckless Games (2021)
3. Ruined Hopes (2021)
4. Broken Ties (2022)
5. Missed Notes (2022)
6. Forever Goals (2023)
BUY THE BOOK
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over forty mature young adult and new adult novels, LA COTTON is happiest writing the kind of books she loves to read: addictive stories full of teenage angst, tension, twists and turns.
Home is a small town in the middle of England where she currently juggles being a full-time writer with being a mother/referee to two little people. In her spare time (and when she’s not camped out in front of the laptop) you’ll most likely find LA immersed in a book, escaping the chaos that is life.
Follow L.A. Cotton on her website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Amazon, and Bookbub.
