WORST CASE by BECK ANDERSON

 

Synopsis:

 

Will she risk the fall and take a leap of faith?

Vivi Lewis just wants to stay in one place for more than a minute. It’s April of her senior year, for crying out loud, and here she is again, packed into a beat-up white Toyota with her anxiety-ridden single mom, fleeing the Washington coast. She hopes that this move—the one that’s taken them inland to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho—will finally be their true fresh start.

There’s little to indicate this time will be much different from all the others…until Vivi meets Win Kemper at the city bus stop before her first day of school. Win and Vivi are a perfect match—both self-defined weirdos. Vivi trusts Win, and their time together is a whirlwind of cliff-jumping and paddleboarding, a life immersed in nature that would have given her, and especially her mom, a panic attack in the past. Their instant spark becomes a rock-solid friendship, and might be even more, if Vivi can stick around long enough to experience it.

But having a reason to stay also raises the stakes. Running from their fears has never made Vivi and her mom safe enough before, and now everything she has to lose appears in sharp relief. Can she find the strength to separate herself from her mother? Will the burgeoning bond she and Win share be enough to get them beyond the last twenty-six days of senior year—even when the worst-case scenario comes to pass?

 

My Review:

 

Beck Anderson is a fantastic writer and this realistic and heartwarming YA romance is a great entry in the genre! Loved the Idaho setting. Give this author a try, you won’t regret it.

“I’d love to tell you I didn’t care what other people thought of us, but that would be a lie. I’d also love to tell you I don’t care now that I’m older, but that’s not particularly true either. ”

I very much enjoyed this story about family and young romance. The writing is clear and blunt and very real. There is a lack of stereotypes and cliches which I found very refreshing. I find that very often, Young Adult books have one-dimensional characters and I liked the nuances of the characters and of the relationships in this book.

Vivi has moved to Coeur d’Alene with her mother just before the end of her senior yera in high school. It is clear very early on that something is amiss with her mother and yet Vivi soldiers on, making the best of her situation. While she is fearful of being the “New Girl” in school, she quickly makes new friends and finds herself feeling at home in her new surroundings.

Vivi meets an incredible boy named Win and they become fast friends. Win has his own family fears and his own anxieties but he shows Vivi a whole new world. Finally she is living life like a “normal” teenager” and she loves it. But she still must deal with her mother. I loved how Vivi grew and changed as a person an really learned to find her own voice. And Win! He was just fantastic.

“He touches me then, right above Great Aunt Agnes’s silver spoon that I bent into a bracelet, and that’s it. I’m done for. A good-looking guy speaks to me and makes physical contact? In my desperate little brain that’s tantamount to a marriage proposal.”

This was a surprisingly rich and poignant story about facing your fears and overcoming your past.

“I wish I could have known him before Franny left. I wonder if he carried himself just a little taller, a little lighter. But we all are made of our history. Like sand deposited on a faraway beach, our lives add little grains to who we are every day.”

I also absolutely LOVED the Idaho setting. If I had any complaint at all about this book it would that I would have loved a longer story! The characters all warranted it. If you love Young Adult romance, give ‘Worst Case’ a try. Beck Anderson has a very unique voice that gives life to her characters.

“Love you up and down,” I begin.

“Forward and backward,” she continues. She gives me a little kiss on the tips of my fingers in return.

“And always,” I finish.

(Reviewed from an ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.)

 

About the Author:

 

 

Website http://www.authorbeck.com
Twitter @BeckAnderson
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/beckandersonauthor

Beck Anderson believes in the power of perfectly imperfect women and in the healing power of love. Her first novel, Fix You, grew out of those beliefs and the time to write afforded by the worst Thanksgiving blizzard she’s ever witnessed in West Yellowstone.

Beck balances (clumsily at best) writing novels and screenplays, working full-time as an educator, mothering two pre-teen males, loving one post-40 husband, and making time to walk the foothills of Boise, Idaho, with Stefano DiMera Delfino Anderson, the suavest Chihuahua north of the border.