This isn't your typical YA book. It was a little deeper.
I really enjoyed this book. While reading it I thought ok this is predictable BUT it changed and I wasn't expecting the Reed/Peyton and Owen thing.
I wish we had just a little more at the end. Don't get me wrong I liked it, I guess I always want more.
I loved the author's note at the end. Thanks for sharing that.

Thanks for letting me review

I was stoked to read this book because like Peyton, I was involved in an accident caused by someone else that ruined my knee and life. I thought I could relate to her. I thought this story would be powerful and inspiring, but I was wrong. I didn’t finish at 30% because the story and characters were awful. The story started off with Peyton reminiscing about her boyfriend of seven or so months and how he illegally fights underground for money. She just received her college acceptance letter to UNC and a spot on their soccer team and cannot wait to share this news with her boyfriend. What Peyton can’t seem to understand is that her boyfriend works as much as he can and participates in underground fights to help his mom and sister (who is Peyton’s BFF) for rent/food/bills at their apartment. Peyton wants all the attention on herself and doesn’t understand why her boyfriend (I can’t even remember his name at this point) must work overtime henceforth why he doesn’t spend every waking minute worshiping her very presence. He is an adult and has responsibilities to help his household and Peyton can’t comprehend that.

When they wander to a party (cue a scene now and later where teenagers drunk drive. Wonderful promotion.) Peyton starts a fight with the boyfriend because she finds steroids in his car and she just doesn’t understand why he must work all the time. She whines until eventually the boyfriend snaps and pushes her down the stairs. I’m not excusing the boyfriend’s actions here, but I’m surprised he didn’t ditch Peyton earlier on since all she did was complain about how he neglected her to work. Anyway, both these people aren’t good for one another since Peyton wants attention and the boyfriend is too busy and responsible to give her attention. So the boyfriend pushes her down some stairs and she lands on her knee and tears her PCL.

I expected this story to revolve around Peyton’s healing and therapy since it takes months to heal after a knee surgery. Instead, there’s a three-week time gap until after the surgery where Peyton is wearing a brace and apparently can walk almost perfectly which is inaccurate. She’s harassed by people angry at her for calling her boyfriend out and making him take a drug test (he passes) and her boyfriend keeps stalking and texting her that he loves her and denies pushing Peyton down the stairs.

I was happy that Peyton kept telling everyone that her boyfriend pushes her, although no one believed her. I didn’t like how she refused to press charges because she didn’t want to inconvenience her BFF. Her mother ships her off to her uncle and twin cousins in Tennessee and once they arrive in Black Water the stereotypes begin. All types of redneck, farm loving, country living southerner stereotypes are weaved into the story complete with the mean, popular girls who have it out for Peyton. Peyton of course is beautiful and skinny so every guy falls in love with her and all the girls are jealous of her because of her looks and how she is related to the beautiful, godlike twins.

Anyway, this story was a stereotypical mess filled with a whiny and self-centered main character who loves attention but refuses to let anyone help her and then complains about the lack of help and attention. Please pass if you’re not into books with typical young-adult trends featuring whining main characters who are gorgeous, evil mean girls, narcissism, and no plot.

I really enjoyed this story of Peyton and Owen, two teenagers who are "broken" in different ways that find themselves in the same place due to the circumstances of their lives. When Peyton discovers a terrible secret her boyfriend is keeping her life takes a turn when she is hurt by his hand. Tell the truth gets Peyton in a lot of trouble because of the pain of who to believe by those around her. When her world shifts to a new one in Tennessee, Peyton has to quickly learn about her family and herself again. Owen is the friend she wasn't looking for and the secrets between them draw them together. There is a beautiful love story but also a story about a girl who is dealing with an abusive and threatening relationship. The story covers a lot and I enjoyed it. Thank you netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was one of those books that hooks you in because Kami Garcia is great at creating characters that we end up caring about. Peyton is caught in a situation that many kids find themselves in....being a star athlete who suffers an injury. Owen also suffers an injury that threatens to end his athletic career. Through the pain and suffering, secrets are revealed and soulmates meet. The abusive boyfriend is also something teens need to be able to talk about and speak out about. Much like Peyton, many teens who speak out are not believed. Great read.

This book was disappointing on a lot of levels. It had bad dialogue, constant girl hate, and mysogynistic comments that I'm sure the main character was supposed to counteract, but occasionally didn't. I would not recommend this.

This was a great book. Very New Adult though as it was a tad graphic in some areas.
There are multiple scenes of alcohol consumption and tons of fighting.
The relationship that Peyton and Owen develop is awesome. I am not usually a fan of the "at first I hate you but now I love you" progression but it really worked for these two. Peyton's previous relationship lends a helpful hand for the reader to understand her timidness to develop feelings for someone new.
Some of the supporting characters were a little annoying. Like her cousin's ex-girlfriend. I mean, I understand it was necessary to have that annoying character but MAN! I did not like her.
I also found some of the scenes predictable. That may be the biggest issue I had with this book.
Overall, I loved the story and the progression between Peyton and Owen.
I would love to see more books following maybe Peyton's bff Tess or even one of her cousins.

Let me begin by saying I love, love Kami Garcia but whatever reason this book didn't make me fall in love with the story like I did with "The Lovely Reckless". I found myself really liking Owen but for much of the story I had a problem connecting with Peyton. I found some of the story to be predictable and I felt the ending was a bit rushed.
I liked that Garcia brought up the topic of abuse...I feel that she navigated that subject well. Overall I liked the book enough but when I got to the end of it I wasn't sad it was over.

Peyton was a star soccer player with a scholarship in reach, and a boyfriend named Reed she adored. Now she has a torn knee ligament and her life doesn't seem so perfect anymore. The catch? Reed pushed her down the stairs, causing her injury, but no one believes her. Enter Owen, a classmate of Peyton's who is also a local MMA fighter. She begins to have feelings for him, but is determined to repress them. She wants to move on from her past, but will she find the strength to do so?

While I didn't love the Beautiful Creatures storyline that much, I was excited to see a new book by Kami Garcia. And this one, I really enjoyed.
The only thing I didn't like was the quick wrap-up. I'm not sure what I wanted exactly, I just felt like it wrapped up too quickly. I also enjoyed the author note at the end of the story. I think that really drove home the point of the book.
Peyton is the victim of abuse from her boyfriend. She breaks up with him, but then he continues to harass her and manipulate the story to show him in the best possible light. Peyton's mom does what she thinks is the best and sends Peyton to live with her uncle and cousins in Tennessee. Peyton meets new boy and that's when the fun begins!
This is really a good story. A little bit of a meatier YA with some darker undertones, but very important undertones.

I'm a big fan of Kami Garcia but have to say this is not one of my favorites. The main characters were likeable and there was good building to their relationship. I felt that some parts of the book were very predictable. There was also some themes that seemed far fetched. When I got to the end of the book I wasn't sad that I was done.

First let me say I've been on this contemporary kick lately, and enjoy reading some lighter fiction. I will really try to avoid any spoilers, but caution.

That being said...There were so many things that annoyed me with this book. I'm not saying you can't have a good contemporary book, or that there isn't any good fiction out there, but this book annoyed me on a lot of levels. The writing was not strong throughout this book, it had it's moments, but most of the time it was choppy and tried too hard to have suspense. I didn't like the language throughout, now before you get upset saying that's how kids talk, here's my little rant, I get there is going to be language, but do we have to be ok with how young adults (or adults) talk? Can't we hope and strive through books to engage the readers enough to have them want to speak with a better vocabulary. I know it's my own pet peeve, but we should be enhancing our vocabulary not breaking it down. I'm also annoyed with the push for sex throughout and the constant push as to how "his body" looked and all...I know this is going to be unpopular, but can't we try to have some books that want to see more than meets the eye, I'm fine with the main characters being attractive, but shouldn't there be more to a relationship than sex first and then we get to know each other? I mean really? (insert eye roll here) The plot was just there for me, it wasn't something that had my attention past the first few chapters.

There were good points that I enjoyed about them, I liked Peyton and her want to be a strong character, but she had whiny and moments that she was so quick to get mad at Owen for keeping a secret, when she had her own? And I felt like her dad was used to gain more sympathy rather than a work in progress on Peyton's behalf. I liked the Uncle and her twin cousins, they were a fun addition and her mom was a strong character that was amazing as well.

It did have it's good moments, but there were too many negatives for me to enjoy this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!!