I liked this book. Ir was a little hard at the beginning. Zack was a popularity seeking, self-centered jerk. That's not surprising because Zack has been trying to be like his soccer team captain tole model, Ryan. Ryan is a bigger jerk than Zack could be. Ryan pulls a prank on their team's biggest soccer rivals that doesn't go over very well. He tries to get Zack to convince one of Zack's BFFs to take the blame, but Zack takes it instead. It's not as much of a secret as Zack thinks it is, but then, Zack thinks the deference Ryan gets is because Ryan is popular and well liked. This summer, between junior and senior years on high school shows Zack just how much he still has to grow up.
Zack has been patterning himself after Ryan. He starts to take his best friends for granted. He starts fights where there doesn't need to be one. He breaks promises. He keeps secrets that makes them seem like lies.
Then he meets Chip. Zack is thunderstruck. He starts to moon over Chip. However, Chip is Ryan's cousin. He knows who Ryan is, and he thinks Zack is just a watered down version of Ryan. Zack has to do some deep soul searching to find where he went off the tracks.
I do have to warn some readers that Zack, while otherwise a normal teenaged boy, is gay. So is Chip. The other boys on the soccer team don't seem to have a problem with it. The soccer team coach is fine with it. Zack's parents don't seem to mind either. Beyond some hand holding and kissing, there is no hanky panky at all. This book is milder than some YA young love stories I've seen lately.
I liked the book. I would even recommend it to young readers. I hope you will give the book a read.
Zack has been patterning himself after Ryan. He starts to take his best friends for granted. He starts fights where there doesn't need to be one. He breaks promises. He keeps secrets that makes them seem like lies.
Then he meets Chip. Zack is thunderstruck. He starts to moon over Chip. However, Chip is Ryan's cousin. He knows who Ryan is, and he thinks Zack is just a watered down version of Ryan. Zack has to do some deep soul searching to find where he went off the tracks.
I do have to warn some readers that Zack, while otherwise a normal teenaged boy, is gay. So is Chip. The other boys on the soccer team don't seem to have a problem with it. The soccer team coach is fine with it. Zack's parents don't seem to mind either. Beyond some hand holding and kissing, there is no hanky panky at all. This book is milder than some YA young love stories I've seen lately.
I liked the book. I would even recommend it to young readers. I hope you will give the book a read.