A mesmerizing and thought provoking story.
Many thanks to Random House and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have come to realise that I don't really like books that surround sports (or music, actually) so take everything I say here with a grain of salt.

I really struggled my way through Out of Nowhere. It took me a while to get into it because I kept trying to connect with the main character but he kept going on and on about football (or soccer) and I just didn't care. I feel like this has the old school YA vibe of being mostly dialogue between friends, making it hard for me to visualise what was going on in the book. I'm not such a fan of flowery writing, but a little more description wouldn't have been amiss.

I feel like the characters were fairly one dimensional, even Tom, the main one, and therefore I was unable to connect to any of them at all.

I appreciated the message the author was trying to get across with this book. It's certainly an important one. The execution just wasn't quite right for me.

Overall, this isn't a bad book, but it's definitely not the best contemporary YA I have read. It's just not the one for me. Maybe it would have been if I had read it "back in the day"!

Out Of Nowhere by Maria Padian is a fast paced young adult book about soccer, refugees, and coming of age. Would I place this book on my favorites shelf? No, but it passed the time and was a mostly interesting plot. Also, I did find particular relevance with the parts about the refugees as I live very close to a sanctuary city and thus, kids here could definitely relate to that.

Tom Bouchard is the main first person character in this book. He’s a senior in high school, captain of the soccer team and third in his graduating class. His family isn’t wealthy. However, they are not even close to poor. He’s had some pretty good luck in his life. So, this book is basically about what happens when refugees join his school’s soccer team and just transform their season. As well as the fallout from a prank Tom and his friend play on a rival school. That’s really the big plot.

I think what prevents me from rating this book higher is how one character, Tom’s girlfriend, Cherisse, is written. She’s very one dimensional and has zero redeeming qualities. I thought this was poor characterization and think that maybe teenagers can handle characters who are a little more complex, even villains. Otherwise, the author nails the setting. Enniston, Maine is a small town with a mix of people – both ignorant and helpful. I also liked how strongly soccer factors in and felt like that added some reality. If you’re looking for a quick read because you have to knock out a numbers based goal, Out Of Nowhere could help.

Fantastic, unputtdownable read about a high school athlete and how 9/11 affects his life and town. Really great insight into small town life in America and how even they were hit by the nation's tragedy. A brilliant book.

Thank you for the opportunity, and making this book available to me, but this title did not fit my reading needs at this time.

I have no recollection of being sent this book, don't have it on the Kindle and haven't reviewed it. Since NetGalley made changes to its site I've found a few 'missing titles' like this.