ARC Review: “One Week of You” by Lisa Williams Kline

“One Week of You” by Lisa Williams Kline

Publishing Date: February 4, 2019

Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary

Page Length: 204 pages (electronic review edition)

Synopsis:

For Lizzy Winston, one week will change everything.

Fifteen-year-old Lizzy Winston has always been a good kid—and she sees the good in most everyone else, too. When she meets the charismatic Andy Masters, she starts crushing hard. He distracts her from other parts of her life that she’s trying to hold together. Her grades are slipping, she causes her mom to miss a new job opportunity, and her friends’ actions are making her question what’s right.

Andy seems like a great guy. He’s funny and charming, the Clown Prince of Lakeside High. He loves digging up news stories for the high school TV station, but he’s got some secrets of his own. As he and Lizzy get closer, she grows skeptical of his motives. When she does her own digging on Andy, she learns that everyone has secrets—no matter how good they seem.

Someone’s pulling pranks at Lakeside, and Lizzy thinks she knows who it is. When the pranks escalate and put students in danger, she must decide where her loyalty lies. She doesn’t want to get a friend in trouble, but if she keeps quiet, someone will get hurt. In one week, she learns that adulthood brings new, complicated responsibilities. Is she ready to do the right thing if it means losing her friends? (description from Goodreads)

Review:

One Week of You follows the story of Lizzie, who is a freshman in high school. Lizzie feels incredibly guilty that she lets her parents down because she’s been boy crazy over, Andy Masters, the most popular guy in school. As a result, it’s caused a strain on her friendships and family on top of forgetting important events/to-do’s. She’s kind-hearted and smart, but on the downside she’s very irresponsible.

The novel is a coming of age story because Lizzie is going through a transition in her life. She starts to realize who her true friends are and comes to a realization that she’s been judging others unfairly. She also sees that she’s been so obsessed with Andy, that she’s neglected many important people and things in her life and it’s leading her astray.

The novel portrays the ups and downs of high school deals with bullying, school, friendship, crushes and staying true to yourself in the middle of everything. Lizzy is super irresponsible about a lot of thing, but being pushed into a crossroads to tell the truth as the pranks at school keep escalating makes her become more responsible. I appreciate that she took initiative to do right thing after messing up.

Though this novel is cliché at some points and is sometimes predictable, but it has a lot of important messages about growing up and doing the right thing.

Final Verdict: