There’s a single defining moment within every skater.
It lasts only a second. Two if you’re good.
Three if you’re really good.
It’s the moment you’re in the air, your board somewhere beneath you, and nothing but wind surrounds you.
It’s the feeling of being airborne.
The sixteen-year-old version of me would’ve said it was the greatest feeling in the world.
Then at seventeen, I had my son.
And every single second became a defining moment. Even the ones that consisted of heartbreak when his mother left us.
Seventeen. Single. Dad.
That’s what my life became.
Yet, every day, I managed to find that feeling of being airborne.
Or at least I convinced myself I did.
But I lied—to myself and to everyone around me.
Until she showed up; Tanned skin, raven dark hair, and eyes the color of emeralds.
You know what sucks about being in the air?
Coming down from the high.
Sometimes you land on the board and nail the trick.
Then kick, push, and coast away.
Other times you fall.
You fall hard.
And those are the times when it’s not as easy to get back up, dust off your pads and try again.
Especially when the girl with the emerald eyes becomes your drug…
And you become her poison.
Title : Kick, Push
Author : Jay McLean
Genre : Romance / New Adult
Rating : 5 stars
Reading age : 18+
This. Book.
This book had tears in my eyes from the beginning. I don’t think they went away throughout the whole book.
This is not a book where two people find each other and need to hold each other up to survive. This is a book about self-love and survival in spite of the world turning against you. You are not going to find a story in these pages about falling in love and everything else falling into place because of it. This book is to real for that. Its honest and raw, about two people who have to learn to grow and survive on their own despite their love for each other. I think that alone deserves credit. The hero doesn’t save the heroine; she saves herself. And the hero builds his life up from the ground on his own.
I discovered Jay McLean’s writing with the More Than series. I was captured by her sense of humor; I found myself laughing hard and crying harder with each book I read. Each story better than the last, but every one of them so, so special. All those moments have led to this one, to this book. Kick, Push – it’s breathtaking. I’m not sure if I was actually breathing at any point while reading it. This book is emotional. It’s relatable, this could be your story, or your brothers or your best friends. It’s real and I loved it.
Meet Josh. Single dad at 17, abandoned by the mother of his child and not one, but two sets of parents. The only support he could have hoped for, gone. He grows in strength and integrity, facing a world he should have never had to face. Josh takes on this world never once questioning it. In the face of betrayal and loss he picks himself and his son up and moves forward. The respect and awe I have for this boy is credit to Jay McLean’s ability to lift her characters off the pages of her books and bring them to life. I am going to miss Josh. That’s how vivid he is.
“There are some sacrifices greater than love. And some loves greater than sacrifice. Tommy’s greater than both”
Meet Becca; complex, quiet, intuitive, compassionate, strong, stunning, Becca. I’m not sure I want to call her broken, although she has a past that is horrible and she endured so much through her childhood, I feel as though saying she is broken is an insult to her strength. Becca; she is a survivor.
I don’t think a better heroine could have been written for this part. Josh needed someone to match his strength and then surpass it. I saw it. He needed someone to fight with him, and for him. Along side him.
“she disintegrated my armor with her existence, and now she has all of me.”
Becca holds a lot of secrets, and where in some books you get information as the reader before the characters, that doesn’t happen here. While there are small drops of information, for the most part you have to piece the puzzle together the same way the characters do. Not knowing the truth until it comes from Becca herself, a testament to her growth as a character. You walk through the emotions yourself as well as experiencing them through the characters, you can empathize because you’re feeling it too. Because you want answers just as badly as they do.
“You never have to be afraid of me, Becca, I’ll never hurt you. And as long as I’m around, no one else will either.”
Watching the dynamics and love and breakdown of these beautiful people is so heart-warming. It’s no surprise that this book has jumped straight into my favorites folder on my Kindle – along with every other Jay McLean book. I swear it. I can’t get enough. She has her own folder, and for good reason! With the perfect balance of humor and heart-ache. The beautiful way she ties her series together. Jay McLean writes the way we think. The way we speak. Its understanding. Its compassion. Its love. And I can feel it. I can feel the emotion she puts into her words, every single one. It shows through her beautifully vivid characters and imagery.
“And there’s nothing sadder, nothing harder in the world than watching the person you love fall apart right before your eyes—and you can’t say or do anything to change it.”
I appreciate this book. As a young single parent I truly do appreciate this book. The light it shone on the relationship between a father and his son, the honesty of Josh’s feelings towards his parenting and the situations and questions we face everyday. The fact it’s saying; yes, we all feel this and no, you’re not alone. It held some very important messages. And through all the heartbreak, in the end you’re left with the unmistakable warmth of hope.
“There’s a big difference between being happy and being selfish. Choose to be happy. Fire truck the rest.”
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worms and bibliophiles 