I’ve become an expert at avoiding things that could hurt me—which means I will figure out how to stay away from Marco Leone.
Seventeen-year-old Frankie Devereux would do anything to forget the past. Haunted by the memory of her boyfriend’s death, she lives her life by one dangerous rule: Nothing matters. At least, that’s what Frankie tells herself after a reckless mistake forces her to leave her privileged life in the Heights to move in with her dad—an undercover cop. She transfers to a public high school in the Downs, where fistfights don’t faze anyone and illegal street racing is more popular than football.
Marco Leone is the fastest street racer in the Downs. Tough, sexy, and hypnotic, he makes it impossible for Frankie to ignore him—and how he makes her feel. But the risks Marco takes for his family could have devastating consequences for them both. When Frankie discovers his secret, she has to make a choice. Will she let the pain of the past determine her future? Or will she risk what little she has left to follow her heart?
Okay, let me start by saying this: I REALLY REALLY WANT TO LOVE THIS BOOK. I really do. I first caught a glimpse of the front cover in a Fierce Reads coloring book back in October when I went to a book signing on Marissa Meyer’s Heartless tour. I had never read Kami Garcia before (I know *gasp* I’ve never read Beautiful Creatures) and was totally into the idea of the bad boy street racer falling in love with the troubled rich girl. Carrie Ryan (author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth) even blurbed, “The Fast and the Furious meets Romeo and Juliet,” on the back. My first thought: YAAAASSSS *raising the roof*.
But this is where things get tricky for me. More often than not, I stay away from contemporary or realistic YA fiction. You have a lot more freedom in your story when you’re not tied so strictly to the rules of “real life”. I don’t need 100% true life in my books! It’s called fiction for a reason, am I right? So my biggest problem wasn’t that this book was unrealistic, so much as it gave a bad example to a lot of young, influential readers. But we’ll get into that later.
Characters
Frankie Devereux is not my favorite character. I loved that she was tough and defiant, but she felt kind of repetitive. Her internal dialogue felt lacking mostly because she was thinking of one of two things: Noah or Marco. She didn’t really have much personality outside of *sigh* boys. Its makes you think, aren’t you the least bit concerned with finding out who you are without a guy in your life? You just experienced a trauma… maybe take some “you time”. Lastly, she treated her best friend and parents like complete horse crap. Call me old fashioned, but just because you’re going through something traumatic doesn’t give you an excuse to disrespect people.
Ah yes, Marco Leone… what dreams are made of. Literally, dreams. Not real life. Marco is chalk full of fictional boyfriend clichés. What girl isn’t attracted to the gorgeous bad boy, covered in tattoos, drives a really sick ride like it’s his job (… oh wait), literally oozes confidence, says all the right things, defends your honor, risks his life to protect his baby sister and is also secretly a Chemistry whiz? Marco literally HAS IT ALL. All of it. He’s got women throwing themselves at him, men who want to be him, yet… he only has eyes for Frankie. This is cute and all, but them locking eyes in Lot B on Day 1 at Monroe does not constitute as love at first sight. It actually equals infatuation at first sight. Big difference. Also, why is it never addressed that Marco has supposedly slept with half of the Downs? It clearly bothers Frankie, but she never says anything about it. (Avoiding communication and honesty… not a good start). Lastly, he has this severe territorial protectiveness over Frankie when he literally doesn’t even know her. I get that in books it’s seen as romantic… but in real life though, it’s unhealthy.
Plot
The concept of this book is very cool. Remember, I was hooked from the cover and Carrie Ryan’s blurb (see above.) I wanted this to give me all the warm, melty feels. My husband and I are big The Fast and the Furious fans, so I was SO ready for this. I love classic muscle cars, so this book was very cool in that respect! Kami Garcia definitely learned her ish when it came to cars, racing, etc. My biggest critique here is that I just think it would’ve been a more believable story for someone in their early-mid 20s rather than high schoolers. Frankie was already talking about Stanford, why not just write the story with her attending Stanford and continue with her self-exploration at that age? I also think this correlates with the audience of the book too. It’s a Young Adult book (12-18 year old audience), but there is no way in hell I’m letting my 14 year old niece read this book. People at this age are already impressionable and trying to figure out who they are, they don’t need a fictional girl (who only thinks about boys) to tell them that this is what real love looks like.
For me, the pacing of this book was basically at warp speed. I didn’t really even know the difference between Old Frankie and New by the time she started at Monroe, she rolls into the parking lot with Lex and BAM! Marco and her make eye contact… *cue butterflies and the there’s something different about him feeling*. They share some witty banter for a while (sprinkled with super cheesy one-liners that actually made me LOL), but then it escalates to a whole new level reaaaal quick. Suddenly, she’s at a street race and Marco is FURIOUS with her. How dare she put herself in danger like this?? (He’s not wrong though…) Then, she goes to a party with her new BFF Cruz and Marco is furious with her again… because HOW DARE YOU GO TO A PARTY FRANKIE. (But again, he’s not wrong.) Frankie is totally reckless and, for a lack of better term, being stupid. My point is, Marco obviously cares about her but his anger felt irrational to me and a little red-flaggy. Then again, I’m never ever ever a fan of the whole Insta-Love thing. Some people love it though; to each their own.
Finally, this was the real kicker for me. I could’ve overlooked everything else, but I really couldn’t get past this. My absolute #1 complaint about this book is that it romanticizes unhealthy relationships and perpetuates unrealistic expectations in both relationships and LIFE. Marco is a wonderful guy and I love him to death as a character… I want Marco to succeed. I’m glad that in the end of it he chose love and gave up his life of crime, got back on the AP track and just generally didn’t end up dead. I’m so happy about this. But this, among other things, shows readers that you can live a life full of dangerous, illegal activity and somehow walk away unscathed. Marco has no consequences other than community service and a probation offer. I’ve seen people suffer more for DUIs let alone years of car theft and street racing. But dang did he look hot doing it, am I right??? *eye roll*
Frankie’s response to all of this is what really drove me over the edge. Speaking from experience, girls love bad boys. I spent many, many years dating bad boys and wishing someone would’ve written a book about a girl who recognizes the flags. The bottom line is that books like this, no matter how well written, romanticize this kind of guy. Frankie is drawn to Marco because he’s dangerous, but lucky for Frankie, Marco has a big golden cinnamon roll heart. This. Is. Not. Real. Life. And it is incredibly dangerous to pretend that danger is sexy, enticing and that it’ll all work out in the end. In real life, Marco’s adorably protective spirit over Frankie would likely result in jealousy, a short temper and a lack of trust. Marco’s real tragic life would be even more so because it’s much muchharder to work your way out of poverty and a criminal record than simply turning yourself into the cops. Unless he chose to pick up his life and start over, he’d always have that past life looming over him and the temptation to fall back into it. In real life, they would have to actually communicate about their emotional baggage and grow together as a mature couple. Would Frankie choose a college closer to home to be near Marco? Would she try to go and deal with long distance? Do they have anything in common now that they’re normal non-criminal teens? Do they even have mutual interest? You can’t base an entire relationship on your eye contact in Lot B or that kiss on the hood of a car.
For a spoiler free AND spoiler video review, check it out here. You’ll get a full glimpse into Amanda and Kyleigh dishing their thoughts.
FINAL VERDICT
Though this story was well written, my fear is that boys and girls alike will read this story, and stories like it, and will assume that all bad boys are misunderstood. Not every bad boy has a heart of gold. Not every criminal is making the wrong decision for the right reason. I’m by no means telling people to discriminate or judge, but I am saying that we need to be careful and proactive about how we’re portraying love to young readers. Maybe I’m taking this stuff too seriously… but as a girl who’s got a 14 year old niece who will inevitably find a good looking bad boy with tattoos one day, I’m okay with taking this too seriously.
OVERALL
FEELS
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