Book Review / The Secret Year by Jennifer R Hubbard

Take Romeo and Juliet. Add The Outsiders. Mix thoroughly. Colt and Julia were secretly together for an entire year, and no one,not even Julia's boyfriend, knew. 

They had nothing in common, with Julia in her country club world on Black Mountain and Colt from down on the flats, but it never mattered. 

Until Julia dies in a car accident, and Colt learns the price of secrecy. He can't mourn Julia openly, and he's tormented that he might have played a part in her death. 

When Julia's journal ends up in his hands, Colt relives their year together at the same time that he's desperately trying to forget her. 

But how do you get over someone who was never yours in the first place?

Published:     23rd December 2010
Publisher:  Sphere
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

What I liked about this book... 
What I liked the most was that this book was written from a Colt's perspective.  The majority of the books I have recently read are mainly written from the girl/woman's perspective.  I found it really refreshing to follow this story from the eyes of the male perspective.  I really enjoyed following his story from the beginning where he funds out Julia has died in a car accident right to the very end.  This was a very short book at 190 pages long but in that short space of time I felt that I really had gotten to know Colt and understand some of the choices he made throughout.


What I was not fond of with this  book... 
Unfortunately this book did not grab my attention as much as what I hoped.  Although I knew that the story would have mainly been about Colt's journey after the death of Julia, I had hoped that it would delve a bit more deeper into 'The Secret Year' between Colt and Julia.  Instead, this story really concentrated on Colt and his journey after her death, which was good but I felt there could have been more to the story.  The slow pace of the story also didn't help my reading motivation getting through it.  With this book there are no surprises, no twists and turns along the way.  It is meant to be a drama, a slice of every day life after the death of someone you love and I hadn't expected that.  I had thought there might be something to discover that we didn't know.  

The best thing to do with this story is to go into it with no expectations and just take the story for what it is.  It is a really great drama and I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more had I realised there would not be any twists or turns or secrets to uncover.