The Secret Year

Jennifer R. Hubbard

Publishing in January 2010

208 pages

Rating: B/B+

Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Colt has been sneaking out at night to meet Julia, a girl from an upper-class neighborhood unlike his own. They’ve never told anyone else about their relationship: not their family or friends, and especially not Julia’s boyfriend.When Julia dies suddenly, Colt tries to cope with her death while pretending that he never even knew her. He discovers a journal she left behind. But he is not prepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship, nor to pay the price for the secrets he’s kept.

My review

I received this ARC in the mail awhile ago and I finally got around to reading and reviewing it! The book sounded good, so I was expecting it to be good. The book was pretty good but it definitely was not captivating enough for me.

The story is about two secret lovers, Colt and Julia, who have complete separate lives and are very different from one another. Julia is rich and lives a fabulous life with great friends, a great boyfriend, a big house, a fancy car, etc. Colt lives an okay life with good friends, no girlfriend, a small house, a broken down car, etc. The point is that they're not meant to be together, yet they can't seem to get enough of each other. When Julia suddenly dies, Colt doesn't know how to get over her without revealing their relationship to everybody. And then there's Julia's diary that holds all her feelings about their relationship. What did she write on her last day....?

I can't say that I loved this book but it was pretty good and I enjoyed reading it. It was a great love story that could definitely relate to the Romeo and Juliet story. I do think that the story captured my interest from the first page but it unfortunately took awhile for me to really get into the plot. The book was very simple and beautifully written and I liked Colt a lot because he's an average guy but he's also very deep and mysterious. I loved reading the story from his POV.

One thing that did keep me reading was Julia's diary entries. I was dying to know what she thought of their relationship and what she wrote in her last entry. I thought the diary was a very original and interesting way of keeping Julia present throughout the book. Although I do feel like the end of the book was a bit rushed and unsatisfying but it's not that big of a deal.

I think this book would be a cute summer read when you have a lot of time on your hands. For her first novel, I give Jennifer Hubbard a well deserved round of applause.

-Marisa