The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

“What do you think about when you can’t sleep? Sometimes I think about the ocean. I can see it lapping on the shore, waves rolling in one after the other, washing over the sand, never stopping. That’s what usually puts me to sleep.”

Published by Viking Juvenile on January 7, 2010

Take Romeo and Juliet. Add The Outsiders. Mix thoroughly.

Colt and Julia were secretly together for an entire year, and no one – not even Julia’s boyfriend – knew. They had nothing in common, with Julia in her country club world on Black Mountain and Colt from down on the flats, but it never mattered. Until Julia dies in a car accident, and Colt learns the price of secrecy. He can’t mourn Julia openly, and he’s tormented that he might have played a part in her death. When Julia’s journal ends up in his hands, Colt relives their year together at the same time that he’s desperately trying to forget her. But how do you get over someone who was never yours in the first place?

 

My Review:

What a sad and heartbreaking love story! This book was beautifully written and left me still saddened for the main character of Colten. This is what can happen to a person emotionally when we keep secrets and are not able to truly “love” the person we are meant to be with.

Colten’s story was heart wrenching and I went through every emotion right along with him. It amazes me that the secret was able to be kept and no one had any idea. I am still on the fence for what I felt for Julia. Through her letters, it seemed that she really and truly loved Colton, but when she was with her boyfriend it didn’t seem to matter.

This book is a perfect example on the pressure that today’s teens have to try to fit in with a particular click. There are cliques at every school and in every town across the country. Nothing has changed since our parents went to school or we did. Only now it is getting even scarier with school shootings and bomb threats every other day. I am not sure if it will ever change???

“Once you’re out here in the world, nobody cares where you used to live. Who you are, that’s what counts.”