REVIEW: Be The Girl By K.A. Tucker

SYNOPSIS: 

Almost sixteen-year-old Aria Jones is starting over. New postal code, new last name, new rules. But she doesn’t mind, because it means she can leave her painful regrets behind. In the bustling town of Eastmonte, she can become someone else. Someone better.With the Hartford family living next door, it seems she will succeed. Sure, Cassie Hartford may be the epitome of social awkwardness thanks to her autism, but she also offers an innocent and sincere friendship that Aria learns to appreciate. And Cassie’s older brother, Emmett—a popular Junior A hockey player with a bright future—well … Aria wishes that friendship could lead to something more. If he didn’t already have a girlfriend, maybe it would.But Aria soon finds herself in a dicey moral predicament that could derail her attempt at a fresh start. It is her loyalty to Cassie and her growing crush on Emmett that leads her to make a risky move, one that earns her a vindictive enemy who is determined to splinter her happy new world. 

REVIEW:

This is such an important and impactful story.   

I love K.A. Tucker's writing, her words always strike me deep.

“She told me that the sooner you figure out how to like yourself through your own eyes, the sooner you’ll stop trying to see yourself through everyone else’s.”

The story starts off with Aria and her mom moving across country from Calgary to a town called Eastmonte, Onatrio,  to move in with her moms 80 year old uncle, Merv.  From the beginning we know that there is some type of secret that Aria is hiding which is the reason for the cross country move. 

This book deals with some pretty heavy things that, unfortunately, a lot of teens have to deal with or go through. It is such an important story for teens, and everyone really, to read and learn from. 

I loved Marvs character, the uncle. Such a grumpy old man, but his interaction with Murphy was so sweet. 

One of the characters is Cassie, Emmets sister. She has autism, and I absolutely loved her character and how much she added to the story. I haven't read many books with autistic characters and it is really nice to see that included. Her and Aria's friendship was one of my favorite thing's about this book. 

Cassie really loves animals and volunteers at an animal shelter, and being an animal lover myself, I loved everything about this aspect of the story. 

I also really loved the main theme of what this book deals with, the synopsis really doesn't tell you, and I love that we get to learn and discover just the same as the characters in this book. 

Emmet and Aria's budding romance throughout the story is really sweet. I love how these two grow close and fall for each other, but there romance is not the main focus of this story. 


"And in that moment, beneath a cluster of tacky glow-in-the-dark stars, my face green with clay and red with embarrassment, I fall hopelessly in love with the boy next door."



There is such an important lesson to be learned from this story. 


Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes even does bad things, but does that mean we can't learn from our mistakes and change as we grow? 



“Any rose can succumb to rot, given the right conditions. But, with enough attention, it can come back better than before.”



This one really surprised me in a good way. I feel this story will forever stick with me.