Tag: Kendra C. Highley

Review: The Perfectly Imperfect Match by Kendra C. Highley

Posted August 29, 2017 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: The Perfectly Imperfect Match by Kendra C. HighleyReviewer: Rowena
The Perfectly Imperfect Match by Kendra C. Highley
Series: Suttonville Sentinels #3
Publisher: Entangled, Crush
Publication Date: July 10th 2017
Genres: Young Adult
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three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Pitcher Dylan Dennings has his future all mapped out: make the minors straight out of high school, work his way up the farm system, and get called up to the majors by the time he’s twenty-three. The Plan has been his sole focus for years, and if making his dreams come true means instituting a strict “no girls” policy, so be it.

Lucy Foster, needlepoint ninja, big sister to an aspiring pitcher, and chicken advocate, likes a little mayhem. So what if she gets lost taking her brother to baseball camp…at her own high school? The pitching coach, some hotshot high school player, obviously thinks she’s a hot mess. Too bad he’s cute, because he’s so not her type.

Problem is, they keep running into each other, and every interaction sparks hotter than the last. But with Dylan’s future on the line, he has to decide whether some rules are made to be broken…

Disclaimer: This book contains a crazy night of moonlit skinny-dipping, a combustible crush, and kisses swoony enough to unwind even the most Type A athlete.

The Perfectly Imperfect Match is the third book in the Suttonville Sentinels series by Kendra C. Highley. As far as I can tell, the series follows different characters set in the same world that Highley has created for these Suttonville Sentinels.

This book follows the Suttonville High’s star pitcher, Dylan as he meets and falls in love with one of his baseball camp members sisters, Lucy. Lucy and Dylan are not supposed to see each other but sometimes, the right person comes along and they fit so perfectly in your life that you guys find a way to be together.

Dylan Dennings has plans for his future. He’s going to work hard in high school, go to the minors and then work his way up into the Majors. He’s got no time for girls or distractions. His baseball team is holding a camp at his school and he’s coaching young pitchers. He’s got a soft spot for one of his campers and is not at all happy that young Owen’s sister Lucy is always around him. For some reason, Dylan is drawn to Lucy and her quirky personality and even though Owen has requested that Dylan not date his sister, Dylan and Lucy can’t stand away from each other.

Lucy is busy. Her father is in the Army and is stationed overseas. Her mother is busy working at her sewing shop and in between school and work, Lucy is teaching classes at her Mom’s shop and fitting in her own orders. She’s a great seamstress whose work has great detail and she’s gaining a small client list of her own. She also watches after her younger brother Owen who is missing his father something fierce. He misses having a man around so when he meets Dylan, he calls dibs on him. Dylan is his friend so when Dylan and Lucy start getting close, Owen is understandably territorial. He doesn’t want to lose his new friend to his sister.

Dylan tries to respect Owen’s wishes but it’s hard when Lucy is driving him to distraction. The chemistry between them is hard to ignore and their romance was on one hand cute but on the other hand? It was frustrating. They bickered in the beginning and I wasn’t here for that. The dialogue was pure cheese when they were fighting and when they were being school-kids but things certainly picked up as soon as they stopped fighting and began kissing.

Overall, this was a fast read with characters that grew on me. In the beginning, I wanted to throttle everyone but over the course of the story, I softened in my attitude toward everyone. Kendra C. Highley has done a great job with this series and I finished this book, wanting to read the books in this series that came before this one. It’s a good one.

Grade: 3.25 out of 5

three-stars

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Guest Review: Defying Gravity by Kendra C. Highley

Posted July 29, 2016 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: Defying Gravity by Kendra C. HighleyReviewer: Tracy
Defying Gravity by Kendra C. Highley
Series: Finding Perfect #2
Publisher: Entangled, Crush
Publication Date: July 25th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Young Adult
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three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Zoey Miller lives for her holidays in Aspen. Her time up on the mountain with the Madison brothers, Parker and Luke, is everything. But for the first time, it’s not enough. This time, she’s determined to win one of the brothers’ hearts.

But the brother she has in mind is a renowned player, with hordes of snow-bunnies following him around Snowmass resort. And the other…well, he’s her best friend and knows she deserves better. Namely him. And he’s going to win her heart.

Parker is in love with his best friend. They are both seniors and they grew up together but now Zoey only spends holidays in Aspen where Parker is a permanent resident. He wants to tell her how he feels but he’s just not found a good time. He’s also afraid that he’ll jeopardize their friendship if she doesn’t feel the same way.

Luke is Parker’s older brother by two years and attends college in Arizona. He’s home for the winter break as well. There’s always been a bit of a competition with them but when it comes to Zoey they’ve all just been good friends – until now.

Zoey shows up from Texas thinking that she’s finally going to make a move on Luke, who she’s had a crush on for a couple of years. She even does her hair and make-up – which she never does while on vacation – to impress him. Luke’s got a following of groupies because of his skiing and Zoey’s not sure that she can measure up to them.

Parker sees how Zoey is looking at Luke and it’s pissing him off and breaking his heart. Luke is reacting to her and Parker confronts Luke. Of course Luke decides to make it a bet about who could “win” her first. Parker’s not really thinking about the bet, he just wants Zoey and he wants Luke to leave her alone.

This was a cute story. It was pretty light and airy for the most part and a quick easy read. Parker seemed like such a good guy and it amazed me that Zoey hadn’t seen him for the wonderful man he was – not just a friend – until she saw him killing it at the Terrain Park. I mean, I get it, the girl is confused because she thought she wanted Luke and then realizes that he’s a bit of an ass when it comes to women. She sees Parker in another light and it meshes everything together. Unfortunately, that also made her seem pretty shallow. Yeah, he’s my friend and I love everything about him but now that I see him at the terrain park and see how good he is then now I want him in other ways. Luckily the author worked around that issue pretty well and in the end I was satisfied with the outcome of it all.

I didn’t read the first book in this story and didn’t feel like I needed to in order to read this one. Yes, the couple from book one was mentioned and Zoey talks to her friend Paige (who I guess was one of the MC’s from book one). To me, however, it just seemed like she was talking to a friend and frankly I didn’t feel the need to know more about Paige and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. So overall a pretty cute YA story I enjoyed reading.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

three-half-stars

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Review: Finding Perfect by Kendra C. Highley

Posted September 10, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: Finding Perfect by Kendra C. HighleyReviewer: Rowena
Finding Perfect by Kendra C. Highley
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication Date: September 14th 2015
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 252
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four-half-stars

How far will you go for perfection?For "Perfect Paige" Westfeld, today is "D" Day. As in, she just got one on her calculus test. With her dreams of Stanford, her reputation, and her parents' expectations at stake, Paige needs to find a way to save face before everything she's worked for goes up in flames.
Ben Franklin (yes, he's related) is from the wrong side of town, with the wrong clothes and the wrong kind of life. He also knows an opportunity when he sees one, and he'll be happy to tutor Paige-if she makes him into the kind of guy her best friend, the hottest girl in school, will date.
It's the perfect arrangement. And Paige is determined not even the inconvenient-and utterly imperfect-attraction simmering between her and Ben will ruin it...
This Entangled Teen Crush book contains swoony situations, adult language, and a perfectly imperfect hero with an eye for calculus and a heart of gold.

I read one other book by Kendra C. Highley and the protagonist in that book drove me up the wall. I was very interested in the book because it features a young high school basketball player and my daughter is one so it was a world that I knew. A world that I understood and was comfortable in but the protagonist made a lot of bad choices so that got on my nerves and that affected my enjoyment of the book as a whole. I still enjoyed the book but it was hard to read. After remembering that book, I was a little wary going into this book. I was prepared to roll my eyes down the street a lot but the synopsis of this book sounded too cute for me to stay away.

I shouldn’t have been worried at all because I adored this book. Highley wrote one of the cutest YA books that I’ve read all summer. I thought both Ben and Paige were fantastic characters and their problems were real ones. They were going through some of the same things that my daughter is going through. They worried about their grades, they worried about getting into college and they worried about what ordinary teens these days are worrying about.

I really enjoyed seeing both Paige and Ben come together. I loved seeing their plans change over the course of the book and I really enjoyed that they acted and reacted like teenagers would. I loved how disappointed Paige was when Ben wanted her to hook him up with Zoey and I loved how much Ben came to like Paige. I also really liked that the parents were actively apart of these teenagers lives. They were intense and they were different but they were there and they were supportive of their kids. It’s nice to see that in contemporary YA since I’ve read more books where the parents are either never around or jerks.

I’m really looking forward to reading Zoey’s book. I loved that she was such a good friend to Paige and later on, to Ben. I can’t wait to see finally meet this Luke Hamilton. He’s got to be amazing if he’s got gorgeous Zoey salivating at the mouth.

Overall, this book was a cute contemporary YA romance that I couldn’t get enough of. The characters were real, they were fun and they were smart. I think fans of contemporary YA will enjoy this one. It’s not bogged with issues and drama and angst. It’s got the right amount of teenage drama and angst to make you thirsty for more. I definitely recommend.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Entangled Crush. You can purchase it here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

four-half-stars

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Review: Sidelined by Kendra C. Highley

Posted March 13, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Sidelined
Rowena’s review of Sidelined by Kendra C. Highley.

After being pushed to excel her entire life, high school basketball star Genna Pierce is finally where she wants to be. University scouts are taking notice, her team is on its way to the state tourney, and Jake Butler, the hot boy she’s daydreamed about since ninth grade, is showing some definite interest. When he asks her out and their relationship takes off, Genna believes things can’t get better.

Then, it’s over.

A freak accident ends her career before it’s even begun. Her parents are fighting more than ever, her friends don’t understand what she’s going through, and she’s not sure who she is without basketball. And while he tries to be there for her, Genna doesn’t understand how Jake could ever want the broken version of the girl he fell for.

Her life in a tailspin, Genna turns to the only solace that eases her pain: Vicodin.

I read the blurb for this book and immediately wanted it because this seemed like it was right up my alley. Not so much the addiction to prescription drugs but the high school basketball player part of it. Genna plays basketball for her high school team and she’s good. When she gets hurt, she struggles with the end of her basketball career dreams and she struggles with the pain and the prescription drugs that she takes to ease the pain. This book was one of those gritty books that takes a realistic look at what it’s like for athletes who get hurt playing the sports that they love.

Genna Pierce was the star basketball player on the varsity basketball team for her high school. When she gets hurt during an important game, her world as she knew it completely combusts. Gone are her college basketball dreams and now her days are filled with physical therapy, fighting parents and physical pain. Just before things went to shit, Genna started dating the guy that she’s had a thing for, for a very long time.

Genna spends the entire course of this book trying to overcome her addiction to painkillers. The book paints a realistic picture of what happens to a person who has a drug problem. The frustrations, the heartbreak and everything else that comes with all of that. It was hard to read at times for me because I found that I wasn’t very patient with Genna and her problems. I’ve never been addicted to drugs and I’ve never known anyone in my life who has had a drug problem so it was hard for me to read through this book because Genna gets really down on herself and I found myself getting so mad at her at every turn in the book. Every decision she made pissed me off and every person she pushed away made me want to smack her. But I can tell you that at the end, I really liked the way that Genna comes into her own. Reading the end, made the beginning and middle of this book so worth it because you saw just how much Genna grew and it was easy to forgive her for being such a dumbass throughout the book. She was stronger in the end and I really liked that this book resolved all of the issues brought forth in this book without needing another book.

Even though this book got on my nerves a lot, I’m glad that I read it. I don’t think I’d read it again so it’s hard for me to recommend this book. I don’t recommend it lightly. It was a hard book to get through but I think it paints a realistic picture at the affects that prescription drugs play in young kids lives and it opened my eyes to a lot of things I wasn’t aware of so in that aspect, I would recommend it but it’s not one of those books that I absolutely loved and want to shout my love for it from the rooftops. But still, it was good.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Entangled. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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