The Secret Year
by Jennifer Hubbard
Highly Recommended!
Colten (Colt) Morrissey lives in the Flats. Julia is a year older, popular, and from Black Mountain where the “rich kids” live. They meet one night down by the river and start a yearlong romance that no one ever knows about. Not their friends or Julia’s boyfriend. Then Julia dies in a car accident during Labor Day Weekend and Colt has to find a way to mourn her without letting their secret get out. When Julia’s journal ends up in his hands he relives their year together while trying to move on with the year ahead.
I really enjoyed this book. It seemed at first to be a typical star crossed lover kind of story but it developed into a really great narrative. As the story unfolded I really wanted Colt to find peace and happiness since he was such a nice guy! The supporting characters are all interesting and well written especially Colt’s brother Tom whose own secrets help Colt realize that he is not the only one in the world with things to hide.
The war between social classes in a high school setting is by no means a new idea, but Hubbard does an excellent job at making it relevant in her novel by drawing the reader into the drama and showing how it relates to Colt's past, present, and even future.
It was refreshing to read a relationship book from a boy’s point of view and Colt’s character will really draw sympathy and compassion from most female readers while Julia’s character will probably anger you! Hubbard did a great job with this one!
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