In my personal opinion I thought it was kind of boring. Despite the description being really well written and how the beautiful the cover is I didn't like it.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

“Take What You Can” is a young adult mystery book that’s centered around Paige, an incoming high school senior, and Fredrick, a mysterious guy that she meets at the beginning of the summer.

Paige has just finished her junior year of high school and is ready to spend the summer with her friends. During a trip to the beach on their last day of school, Paige meets Fredrick for the first time, but her best friend Josh warns her about Fredrick and advises that she stay away from him. Despite Josh’s warnings and advice, Paige can’t help but feel intrigued by Fredrick, and still continues to interact with him whenever she sees him. One day, when Paige is trying to get to know Fredrick, she finds out that he steals, and so does his group of friends, and even after hearing this fact, Paige still wants to spend time with him, until one night, while hanging out with Fredrick, Paige ends up getting into a fight and gets injured as a result, and after that night, Fredrick doesn’t want Paige to see or hang out with him anymore, because he doesn’t want Paige to get hurt again or get into any trouble because of him. However, Fredrick helps Paige once again at a party, and Paige begins spending some time with Fredrick’s group of friends, who teach her how to be like them, and she alternates between doing that and spending time with her own friends, whom she also keeps this a secret from. Fredrick’s friends quickly see her as part of their group, but even though Paige doesn’t want to officially be apart of it, she still intends to see Fredrick as much as she can.

I thought that this was a very interesting story, and I think that Fredrick and his friends were a huge part of what made the plot so interesting to read. I also like how protective Fredrick is of Paige and liked seeing their relationship develop throughout the story.

Paige is planning on spending the summer before her last year of high school relaxing in Florida. However, that doesn't exactly happen when she meets, Fredrick, who has a bit of a reputation for being a bad boy. Paige is intrigued because Fredrick is mysterious, but her friend Josh warns her to stay away from him. Does Paige listen to Josh? No, of course not, this is a YA novel after all.

Overall a quick and easy read. There is a trigger warning for sexual assault.

The book is not what I expected, the blurb is quite mysterious and dramatic but the book itself is not. I liked the writing style of the book, it was an interesting and quick read.

I did not like the main character at first, she has the ‘I’m not like other girls/teenagers’ personality and she always seemed to be hating on others however as the book goes along and she finishes comparing herself to others, she was a decent character. I also liked the side characters.

I expected more mystery at the start of the book regarding Fredrick but things get revealed pretty easily and the reveal is not as dramatic as the blurb hints at. I did prefer the second half of the book, it was more interesting as the first half was very repetitive with what the main character did. I did like the pace of the book however the ending was way too rushed, there was little build up to the big scene and the scene itself was over so quickly.

The romance between Paige and Fredrick was okay, he spends most of the book pushing Paige away or not showing his feelings and so it felt really dragged along.

3/5

DNF at 18%

At the party to celebrate the start of summer holidays, Paige meets Frederick.
Her best friend, Josh, warns her off.

Okay, listen. Yes, I didn't last long.
There were simply to many tropes I've read both too often and never really liked, and a bland writing style. Zero diversity in characters.

Protagonist Paige is not like other girls. She likes to read and would spend her lunch breaks doing it if her jock friend Josh would not demand her attention. Her clique literally gets introduced by the stereotypes they fulfill in a weak attempt to play with them but so far have been ignored.

So, there is this guy, Paige meets him, he's beautiful, she's hormony and reacts to that. Josh, afore mentioned jock, sees them together and tells her it would be best if she stayed away from him but doesn't deem it important to explain, so chapter one ends with the nagging feeling that if he reacted differently, there would have been no book.
Josh tells Paige to trust him. She doesn't.

When they meet it again, it's kind of hinted that Paige suspects Frederick followed her to the supermarket, and a week later, he is unannounced at her door. This random guy she met at a party. She made the mistake of giving him not only her real name, but also her full name, and come on. This is 2020. If she is that naíve, it should be talked about.

On some level, Paige seems to be aware that he's playing a bingo with red flags, but she decides to ignore that because... no reason, really. There is no chemistry between them. It doesn't make sense. You could argue that humans are flawed beings and their actions don't have to make sense, but then let me ask why this book that reads like early 2000 ya is published in 2020. Not only written, no, <i>published</i>.

Reading a few reviews told me 1) that there will be a kind of assault going on and that 2) I shouldn't really bother with reading on as it won't get better.

If I were a teen, I'd probably love this. I would have, but then the whole genre was a different thing than it is today, and this novel makes me glad of the changes we've had.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

REVIEW - TAKE WHAT YOU CAN
by Heather Garvin

I decided upon this book since I am on the lookout for something easy to read in between multiple heavy and emotional historical fiction and memoir I'm reading. Surprisingly, Take What You Can certainly live up to what I am looking for and more.

The story follows girl-next-door, Paige Lawson, who just finished her junior year in high school. Life is going on as per her usual with not much excitement for summer vacation until she unexpectedly meet this enigmatic guy, Frederick Pryce, at a beach party. Drawn to him despite his mysterious personality, she ended up befriending him and eventually led her up to knowing his equally peculiar friends. Bad things started happening to Paige since then and whether or not it's because of him, she is certainly not prepared for how her supposed uneventful summer vacation is going to be.

Honestly, I was not expecting a lot from this book but I wind up reaching for it every so often, wanting to find out what happens next. Flow of the story is spontaneous enough and scenarios didn't feel forced. Some of them pretty cliche, though not annoying, were actually cute and really gave me that high school feels. Mind you, I'm in my early 40's. It was easy for me to like Paige as I can relate to her personality. Responsible, quiet, kinda keep to herself if she can, has enough close friends so cannot be considered as a loner, but most of all would rather be staying at home and reading :). Might not be for some since elements of violence and theft crimes are involved in the story, but took it with a grain of salt. I actually read each and every word of the action-packed scenes and felt like I was watching it like in a movie. Wouldn't be surprised if they consider making it into one. Overall, I enjoyed this book. Recommended for those who wants an easy and entertaining read with enough spunk and action and not to forget that sprinkle of love story in it.

Thank you to Tuscan Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 40%

This book moved so incredibly that I found myself jumping around just hold my attention. This felt very overwritten. I always want more in books but in this case the sentences were redundant and repetitive. Definitely needed to invoke “show, don’t tell.”

It’s summer in Florida. The temperatures are sweltering. A group of friends attend a bonfire party at the beach. Each have different interests at the party, and Paige finds herself sitting by the fire alone. It is this moment that changes her life.
“Take What You Can” is the debut novel from Heather Garvin. Heather wrote the manuscript while she was still in high school. Recently, I was given the opportunity to interview Heather and was amazing to work with.
Now, about the book. As mentioned above, the setting is a small town in Florida, about 45 minutes form the Beach. Paige, our main character, lives there with her father. His work hours leave her with plenty of free time to hang out with friends.
While at a party, Paige meets Frederick. He is mysterious, and Paige finds herself drawn to him, despite the warnings from her friend Josh. As Paige gets to know Frederick, she finds herself in the center of a life that she wasn’t prepared for. However, grit and determination help her to do things she never thought she could do.
“Take What You Can” is a young adult novel. The sentence structure is varied, and the plot is easy to follow along with. Heather Garvin is able to describe elements in the story in such a way that the reader can visualize the setting, and actions of the characters, without feeling overwhelmed with too many details.
My favorite character is the story is Melissa, a friend of Frederick. She is spunky, strong, and you never have to guess what she is thinking. She doesn’t care to let her opinion known and does not hide her dislike of Paige.
My least favorite character is Luke. While part of him is endearing, at first, his actions leave me with a true hatred of him. I can’t talk anymore about him without giving away spoilers.
There are two characters that I feel showed growth, was Frederick. Once closed off, Frederick opened profoundly to Paige. Some of out necessity, some out of trust. Paige showed the most change, although not all of it was good.
This story has just about everything you could want in a story. It has friendship, comradery, love/romance, conflict, etc.
I will offer a word of caution to readers there are violent elements, and a brief sexual assault. If you have sensitivities to these elements, you may want to read with caution. They are necessary to the telling of the story, however, you could skim over the scenes without losing the integrity of the story.
The only negative aspect that I can find with the story is that the ending is a major cliffhanger. However, after interviewing Heather, I know that the story continues in the form of a sequel that she just finished. I am anxiously awaiting to find out more.
I truly found myself caught up in this story. As times I was so engrossed while reading that I was completely oblivious to my surroundings. “Take What You Can” is definitely a 5-star read.
“Take What You Can” will be released on July 27, 2020 from Tuskan Publishing. It can be purchased from Amazon in Kindle format for $3.99.
I received an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, Heather Garvin, and Tuskan Publishing. This has no way impacted the rating or thoughts portrayed in this review.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley and fell in love with the characters. Teenage girl falls for a bad boy in the super slow burn modern-day ‘pirate’ novel. The characters feel alive because of how strong their personalities are. There is definitely hope for a sequel and cannot wait for it!

A mash up of clan conflict like Twilight and a setting reminiscent of Outer Banks, Take What You Can gives you all the feels and keeps you on your seat for the next bump in the road.

Take What You Can is a read you will love or hate. If you like YA books that use every cliche going then this book will certainly tick all the boxes for you, if you don't love the cliches, then this is not the book for you. While being full of cliches and somewhat predictable, it's extremely well written, which makes it very easy to become absorbed in despite, the cliche nature of it.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a digital ARC of Take What You Can in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book can easily become popular. I also think it shouldn't. This is the type of the book targeted towards young teenage girls that (while I'm sure it's not intentional) makes teenage girls hate everything else targeting towards teenage girls.

Our protagonist, Paige is the dictionary definition of not like other girls. We quickly learn she's super popular but to try and counteract the lack of relatability that can create, she's as 'quirky' as possible. She likes books and old music. She's tough and cool. We're told about her long wavy brown hair that luckily, she can untangle simply by running her fingers through it due to how gorgeously loose her curl is and immediately followed up with how average the rest of her is even though everyone falls in love with her non-personality. One of the first scenes we see her in she criticizes a group of girls for giggling because she hates their 'lack of substance' as if a) she can tell everything about a person based off of a giggle, b) there's something wrong with laughing.

Enter Generic Angsty Love interest. He has a messy past and a messier future. From the get go he's controlling and overbearing chastising our protagonist for sitting alone at a party under the assumption she can't take care of herself. The story kind of goes off the rails from there and I don't want to get into spoilers, but this book had a lot of my least favourite YA cliches and I can't justify giving it a higher rating.