Simone Elkeles

I wasn’t as into this book as I was the first one. Caleb has gotten into trouble again, and once again; he really didn’t have anything to do with it. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, Caleb is now 18 and an adult in the eyes of the law, so instead of juvie, he would be looking at big boy jail time. He is once again saved and is “given” the option to join the RE-START Program and travel with other offenders and share his story, or go to jail. Once at the RE-START meeting place he realizes that Maggie is there and here is where we start the alternating chapters again. I still liked seeing things from both characters point of view, though things seemed a little too drawn out in this one. Maggie and Caleb were at each other’s throats more than was really necessary. But as always things got hot and heavy between them, though they both didn’t want them to. Maggie kept trying to show Caleb that she had moved on and Caleb was playing the jealous part to a T!
I am happy to report that the incident from the first book was finally resolved in this one and things seem to be on track for everyone in the book.
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I've had this one sitting on my shelf for over a year now. I picked it up last night after I finished unpacking to help me relax and I am so glad that I did! i literally couldn't put it down.

The chapters switch back and forth between Caleb and Maggie's point of view and we get to see just how the accident has affected both of them. With Maggie going through multiple surguries and physical therapy over the last year and Caleb being granted early release from the juvenile detention center, we get to see how being thrown back into high school affects them both.

Caleb was your average good looking jock, while Maggie was Caleb's twin sisters best friend and popular by default and her ability on the tennis court. A year later and everything has changed, Maggie is no longer popular, no longer star of the tennis court and she walks with a limp. Caleb, is now an ex-con and while his old friends don't seem to have a problem welcoming him back into the fold, they keep bringing up the accident, the one thing he really wants to forget about.

Maggie and Caleb run into each other a few times, and while Maggie is terrified of him, due to old nightmares and just the fact that he ran her over with his car, Caleb really wants her to forgive him. He paid his debt to society and now just wants to be free. They try to avoide each other as much as possible, but living in a small town and going to the same high school makes that hard for both of them.

When they end up working together at this old lady's house they start to grow closer. Both of them think that it is a bad idea, though they can't seem to not be drawn to each other. Things come to a head and they "split" up. Caleb ends up finishing the work he was assigned and completing his community srevice requirements, which gets him released. Things at home are not great for him, and we learn a secret that really changes EVERYTHING, but Caleb continues to guard this secret and ends up leaving home and Paradise. Maggie realizes what happened the night of the accident, but doesn't let it change things. The ending really has me wishing that I had the next book, and I am anxiously awaiting getting it in my addicted little hands!
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Even given the sprinkling of Spanish in Alex's chapters, neither Brittany's nor Alex's points-of-view read as distinct from one another; the whole book could've been written in third person and it wouldn't have made a difference. And while I understood why the two were drawn to one another, the rest of their relationship—why they stayed together—was only vaguely sketched in amid all the gang-related and familial drama. Not that I didn't enjoy the drama, but by the time I reached the end of the book, I had no real sense for why they were so passionately in love...only that they were and I was supposed to take their word for it.… (more)