Susan Marshall

In Double Negative we have the main character Reece, who has an injury which means her competitive swimming has halted until it is better. Her brother Jamie runs for student council president, wins and pulls in Reece to be vice president but it seems she is doing all the organising and work, why was Jamie not taking it seriously?
We also have Zain a basketball player, an amputee, who wants to be scouted, and he and Reece’s love story blows hot and cold. Can they get over their differences on the school council and away from it too?

I enjoyed Double Negative, it has the right amount of teenager angst which I am sure every teen has suffered in some form or another. I enjoyed the school council president/VP storyline as we don’t have that in the UK so it is all new to me and very interesting.

Zain was a great character, I felt all the emotions for him, angry, sad, sympathy etc. and I got where he was coming from even though I have not been through what he has.

Jamie was that annoying big brother who speaks before thinking and Reece was a great character, she was very mature for her age, but still a teen and there was a lot of pressure on her from all sides.

Overall, this was a great book, well written and fast-paced. Susan Marshall is a new to me author but I will definitely be looking out for more from her.
… (mais)

While hitting high school emotions and familiar issues teens can face, this is a quick-paced, easy read with something always going on.

Thanks to an injury, Reece has to sit out from swimming for more than a few months and is placed, temporarily, into the same high school where her brother is a senior. He's running for class president to make his college application shine, but thanks to the rules, his running mate is disqualified and Reece steps up to fill the spot...but not happily. Her brother refuses to take anything seriously, and she's caught pulling in the extra slack, especially since Zain, president of the athletic student board group, is breathing down her neck. But while she wishes Zain would lay off, she finds herself drawn to him and soon, she's caught in an odd spot.

This book is high school drama pure with a very large dose of sports, and that works great. Reece comes across very believable as every fiber in her wants to get back to swimming, and she tries her best to cope with the situation until she heals enough to return. She's in an awkward place of waiting, and yet, is supposed to deal with things as if she wasn't for the sake of her brother. Her frustration, occasional lack of enthusiasm, and uncertainty is completely understandable as she deals with all sorts of expectations from various directions...most of which won't have the same impact in her short term future even, but are still meaningful to those around her. So, the author hits her well.

There are a lot of themes in this book from sport injuries to family issues to disabilities to drugs to alcohol to relationship problems and on and on. While the author does spend the beginning chapters with sometime in Reece's head, letting the reader get to know her pretty well, the tale shifts into very heavy dialogue by the end. This is a character driven read through and through, which doesn't bog down with much world building or thoughts. So, it is quick paced on that end.

The relationships are interestingly woven, especially on the family end. And I did find the sports connections and attitudes very well done. The romance works all right. I didn't get some of the lack of understanding from others toward Reece's ex problems. Her romance with Zain grows and holds more of a friendship direction, which I appreciate, but misses a bit of pizzazz. The longer the tale went on, the more the issues grew until there were all sorts of things hitting from all directions. The dialogue keeps it well paced, but I still noticed that I was skipping over more and more paragraphs the further I went into the read. Still, I was curious enough to know what happens to keep reading until the end, and I did find the characters well done.

Fans of high school drama, sports and romance are sure to enjoy this one quite a bit.… (mais)