Author: Kami Garcia
Publication: Imprint (October 4, 2016)
Description: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia, a contemporary romance full of loss, love and redemption…
Seventeen year-old Frankie Devereux would do anything to forget the past. Haunted by the memory of her boyfriend’s death, she lives her life by one dangerous rule: nothing matters. At least, that’s what Frankie tells herself after a reckless mistake forces her to leave her privileged life in the Heights to move in with her dad―an undercover cop. She transfers to public school in the Downs, where fistfights in the halls don’t faze anyone and illegal street racing is more popular than football.
Marco Leone is the fastest street racer in the Downs. Tough, sexy, and hypnotic, he makes it impossible for Frankie to ignore him…and how he makes her feel. But the risks Marco takes for his family could have devastating consequences for them both. When Frankie discovers his secret, she has to make a choice. Will she let the pain of the past determine her future? Or will she risk what little she has left to follow her heart?
Your own heart will race with each page turn of this heart-stopping star-crossed love story.
My Thoughts: Frankie Devereux is having a hard year. She was present when her boyfriend Noah was beaten to death outside a popular club but suffers from PTSD and can't remember the face of the person who beat him. She has changed from a good student, excellent pianist, and future Stanford student to a girl who doesn't care about anything and is reckless.
After being charged with a DUI, she is moved from her mother's home in the rich part of town where she lived with her socialite mother and despised step-father to her father's home in a poorer part of town. Her father is an undercover cop whose job is to track down car thieves and a carjacking ring. He is a black and white thinker who hasn't had much contact with his daughter.
Frankie finds herself at a new school where she meets Marco Leone who has a bad reputation. They fall in love despite many challenges.
I liked this story a lot. I loved the emotional intensity and the depiction of Frankie's grief and her determination to live her life her own way. I loved Marco and thought he made a great romantic partner for Frankie.
I found many parts of this book similar to Katie McGarry's Pushing the Limits series. This would be a great book to pass along to students who loved those.
Favorite Quote (from Frankie's journal):
At fifteen, Noah told me I shouldn't trust a boy if he said he loved me (because high school boys only wanted one thing).I got this ARC from Macmillan in exchange for an honest review. You can buy your copy here.
But the night of his sixteenth birthday, he was the boy who said it.
Noah was beautiful, athletic, funny, and smart.
Everyone said it would never last.
They were right.
Noah died at seventeen, a week before his eighteenth birthday.
I've seen so many great reviews for The Lovely Reckless, but I'm still pretty hesitant. I like McGarry's series, but I don't love it. I think I'll still give this a go! Thanks for the review. :)
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