The Secret Year, by Jennifer R. Hubbard

Wow, another book review! This is very unlike me. But I had put The Secret Year, by Jennifer R. Hubbard on hold at the library and it finally came in. I have been wanting to read it ever since I first read about it from Nathan Bransford's blog and was super excited to read it right away!

From the book jacket:


Colt was with Julia for a year, but nobody else knew about it. Julia lived on Black Mountain Road in a mansion - with servants - and had a country-club boyfriend to complete the package. Colt definitely didn't come from Black Mountain, and no one would have understood why they were together. But it never mattered to them. Until Julia dies in an accident right before her senior year, and Colt is suddenly the only one who knows their secret. He tries to pretend that his life is the same as ever, but he's haunted by memories of Julia. Things get worse after the journal she kept about their romance falls into his hands. Colt searches every entry for answers: Did Julia really love him? Was he somehow to blame for her death? But the ultimate question - one nobody can answer - is how he's supposed to get over someone who was never really his to begin with.

I fell for the plot immediately! It was juicy and tragic and intriguing. At 192 pages, it was a rather short book and I finished it fairly quickly. I enjoy yound adult books, but I would have preferred for this to be longer.

I had thought that there would be a lot of Julia's journal entries, but there were only a handful that were shared. The meat of the story wasn't so much the relationship that Colt had with Julia, but the social divide between the two and the way he deals with his grief over a relationship that was meant to stay secret.

I have a problem that when I start a book, I already have some preempted ideas about who I am supposed to like and dislike. I felt like I was supposed to like Julia, the poor little rich girl who loves her guy from the wrong side of the tracks (the wrong part of Black Mountain in this case), but is forced by high school's social hierarchy to stay with the guy that was "approved" to be with her. So it surprised me that I didn't like Julia the more I read. I came to realize, however, that Julia was never meant to be an exception to the popular rich girl rule; Julia was getting her hands dirty, toying with something new. Despite all her promises (which I am sure she had meant to keep), her upbringing would always steer her into the path that was paved for her. Colt never stood a chance.

I have to say that this is another book that I very much enjoyed. I loved the way Hubbard was able to smoothly transition between the present and the past. Something I have yet to master with my own book. I think she fully grasped the way that teens are today and the decisions they are faced with every day.

If you enjoy young adult books about forbidden loves, this should be on your list to read. 

P.S. My next book review won't be for a while since the current book that I am reading is a little over 600 pages!