a beast of a race:miles through Texas riverways, navigating logjams and dams and rapids, alligators and dehydration, thunderstorms and exhaustioninduced hallucinations.
Sadie has something to prove: she had to drop out of the race last year, breaking a multigenerational family tradition, and this year she wants to not just succeed but excel.
But she also has an enormous wrench thrown in her plan: her brother, who has completed the race twice and with whom she has planned all year to compete, abandons her at the last minute for a different team.
Sadie's out of the runninguntil her exbest friend proposes they join forces,
I love a good outdoorsadventure story, and this is a fun one, Sadie knows what she's doingshe's been around boats all her life, and most of her family is hypercompetitive about this racebut she can't always control what happens.
It's also nice to see Sadie's arc throughout: early on, she can only see one way to succeed that is: push hard, don't rest, take no prisoners, stay laserfocussed on beating the competitors, but as time passes and exhaustion sets in and tempers fray, she has to learn that there's more than one way to succeed.
One thing I didn't love: I ADORED this book, It's funny and heartfelt, actionpacked and feminist, sporty and romantic, It's like if Sarah Dessen wrote the Hunger Games but it was set on a canoe in a grueling twohundred mile race.
I mean, dont you want to read that book So so so good,.
This type of book is what I love about YA, Subject matter I have never heard of/no knowledge of, But make it a super interesting adventure story, Include some family drama. An enemies to friends and maybe more storyline, A redemption arc. A big middle finger salute to some jackass side characters, This was just a really great
surprise, This is everything I'm looking for when I open a book badass girl athlete, a new sport to learn about, and for bonus credit, plop a hottie she hates in the front seat.
Devoured it, loved every moment, I was so wrapped up in this book, I love watching adventure racing but even so, I wasnt sure how the author could maintain interest overmiles of a canoe race.
Not only did the challenges and triumphs of the actual race keep me on the edge of my seat so many great details that made me feel like I was right in it the relationships romantic, friendships and family were equally compelling that built so beautifully throughout the whole book made me stay up way too late reading this and I finished it in only a couple of days.
It was so much more than an adventure book or a romantic novel I was truly invested in all the characters and had several moments that made me teary, which is not the norm for me while reading.
Love, love, loved this book!!! I cant believe its a debut novel, I had the privilege of listening to the author read a scene from this novel and it is the most I've ever laughed during a reading.
I CANNOT WAIT to read the rest, .stars, rounded down
Unfortunately, my first summer read of the year was a bit of a letdown.
I just got into canoeing for fun, not competitively or anything like that recently, and since this is about amile canoe race, I was interested in it.
Add in an enemies to lovers, forced proximity romance on said canoe and I was even more excited about it.
However, I did not find the characters to be terribly likable, The main character Sadie was an absolute SNOT to Cully for most of the book, She was very bossy granted she did have more experience canoeing but she could have told him what to do in a nicer manner but then at the same time when he would come to her for guidance, she would get mad at him.
The father was awful for most of the book though he did redeem himself at the end, and the brother was worse and also didnt redeem himself.
I also found the book to require a pretty strong understanding of both canoes and canoe races.
Im new to canoes and know nothing about canoe racing, so I was fairly confused at points,
The romance was fairly lackluster and she seemed to change her mind about how horrible Cully was at the drop of a hat.
I don't usually gravitate towards YA nor stories with sports backdrops, but this story grabbed me anyway, I started it one morning and found myself finishing it that same evening the pacing was excellent, Though the race wasmiles along a river in Texas, the setting never really dragged, which is saying a lot.
While I was never as popular in high school esp, with dating as the main character here, I found myself remembering certain aspects of that age that rang true, and I appreciated the details that really set the stage for this woman vs.
herself/woman vs. nature story with a dose of romance, For those of us who aren't naturally interested in endurance events, I have to say this story helps explain their allure and the challenges! in a way I hadn't thought about before.
There is also a lot of family drama including drama between two families, which also rang true for me.
LOL. I would recommend this book, Amile canoe race is always hard, Taking it on with your mortal enemy as your partner That's a whole other level of difficulty, I have done some endurance events myself, and the raw grit, determination, and questionable sanity in this book were spot on.
Sadie is determined to prove herself to her father and brother by completing a multiday canoe race, In the end, she gets much more out of it than she ever expected,
I especially loved the descriptions of several places I have visited, and the visceral descriptions of the Texas bugs.
This book made me laugh, made me cringe, and made me learn what a gunnel is, Well done, Holly!.