One life-changing summer. One boy. The boy. The boy who offered me safe touches and heart-stopping smiles – smiles he shared with his son. We filled our days with porch-step kisses, filled our ears with laughter, filled our hearts with love. Deep, soul-aching, desperate love. But love is misleading. It’s an invisible, fleeting moment. Somewhere between false adoration and pure hatred comes an emotion, a vulnerable need, a single desire. It lives within the ones who miss it, who crave it, who know better than to expect it. Love is relentless. Even when that love turns to hate, turns to loathing, turns to pain. Love should heal you. But it can also break you. Believe me, I know… Because I’m Becca Owens – a broken girl… …And he’s Josh Warden – the boy who broke me.
Title: Coast (Kick, Push #2)
Author: Jay Mclean
Genre: New Adult, Contempory Romance
Rating: 5 Radiant Stars!!
My word.
Have you read Kick, Push? Because you have to read these books in order.
Better yet, have you read my Kick, Push review?
Because, honestly, I can’t even. To think that that was one of the most emotional reads OF MY LIFE, and then this happened.
I know that I was more.. emphatic while reading these books than I would imagine others could be, given the fact that I am a single parent, and like Josh, I have been through all the undeniable emotions that come along with single parenting. BUT, these books are so damn emotional that they just shred you. Shred.
“I kicked, and I pushed, and for the past year, that’s all I’ve been doing because it didn’t feel the same and I knew in my heart that without her, I’d never be able to coast.”
I can’t think of words that would fit for this review. None are big enough. The best I have to explain Coast is that for every emotion Kick Push fractured, Coast completely melts them back together again.
Jay Mclean has a natural talent. Not just for telling stories, but for the ability to string words together in the most influential and emotional way. The book is full of awe-inspiring quotes and stunning poetry which time and time again remind me why I continue to not only devour everything Jay Mclean writes but also why she has been sitting at the top, as my most favourite writer since I first picked up More Than This. And yes, Writer, not just an author, Jay Mclean is More. You need to read these books! They are full of hope and heartbreaking poetry.
In Coast, we get to revisit Josh Wardens life, though this book, unlike Kick Push, was predominately Becca’s.
I was so pleased to have more of Becca. To have her become more than this ‘broken’ girl, she was in Kick Push. To watch her grow and become her own, on her own.
“And I realized…
That the world was full of perfect things. And broken, faulty people.”
That was one of my most favourite features of this book. Becca’s strength. Everything she did was her own. She didn’t let herself be held back by others or even by herself. I loved the vitality and courage of this young woman.
And Josh. Well, we get to see a new playful side to Josh I don’t recall a whole lot of in Kick Push. Where Josh is acting more his age, and learning how to open his life to more than just being Tommy’s father.
“We loved in ways that can’t be explained, hurt in ways that can’t be justified. We felt every possible emotion under the sun.”
The book has tears and giggles, frustration along with moments of devastation. But above all, the natural progression of emotions we have to deal with in everyday life.
Jay Mclean not only writes amazing stories, but she writes honestly. With what I can only imagine as actual experience with these feelings, Mclean manages to capture the true emotions of these characters and transfer them to the reader, creating fiction with very real, very honest, very human reactions.
I loved this book, along with all of Jay Mclean’s other books.
The perfect conclusion of Josh, Becca, and Tommy’s journey.
#TimeToCoast
worms and bibliophiles 