Review: Sidelined by Kendra C. Highley

Sidelined by Kendra C. Highley

After being pushed to excel her entire life, high school basketball star Genna Pierce is finally where she wants to be. University scouts are taking notice, her team is on its way to the state tourney, and Jake Butler, the hot boy she's daydreamed about since ninth grade, is showing somedefinite interest. When he asks her out and their relationship takes off, Genna believes things can't get better.
Then, it's over.
A freak accident ends her career before it's even begun. Her parents are fighting more than ever, her friends don't understand what she's going through, and she's not sure who she is without basketball. And while he tries to be there for her, Genna doesn't understand how Jake could ever want the broken version of the girl he fell for.
Her life in a tailspin, Genna turns to the only solace that eases her pain: Vicodin.

Publishes in US: October 1st 2013 by Entangled: Teen
Genre: YA Contemp
Source: Entangled Teen via Netgalley
Series? No.

Buy it: Amazon / Barnes & Noble Kobo, iTunes

Author stalk away: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

 

    Sidelined starts with a relatively adjusted Genna doing well at her passion, basketball. Although she gets pressure from her mom, because Genna is basically living out her childhood dream that she didn't have the talent like Genna does. I like this glimpse before we know things will go downhill fast. I see her doing what she loves, feeling the pressure, and the giddiness of a new relationship, her long time crush. 

   I say, and this is probably just an ARC issue, but it was like they searched the book for "fi" and "fl" and deleted it. It drove me absolutely insane, and I almost didn't finish, I mean   nish, because of it. 

    Anyways. Family was an important part of this story which I appreciated. Genna at first felt completely abandonded and ignored except for pressure and feeling like they were making decisions for her, or steering her life without her input. But as the story goes on, of course there are some rough times, but I loved watching these relationships bloom. I especially enjoyed the closeness and understanding between Genna and her dad. It is even more rare to have an involved parent, but for it to be the dad, that really was awesome to me. 

    Her best friend was awesome, involved and intuitive. She had such and understanding and nurturing personality and she made me happy to read about Rowan. Jake was the love interest in this one, and while their relationship starts at the beginning of the book, Genna had been friends but crushing on him for a while, so it is not seeing him and all the sudden in so deep. Jake really shows to me a changed personality because he was a player basically but then he decided that he wanted to be with Genna, but as a senior, his time was running out. So, I loved seeing his personality and how much he cared for her. Though the romance doesn't take a front seat to the story in this one, but it is sweet and I appreciated it being there. 

   Her descent into the pills was realistic and emotional. I think it shows pretty clearly that things we think will never happen to us can. It focused on the fear and the way that the pills helped with the pain physically, but she also found it was a way to deal with the emotions too, of losing basketball, her dreams, and the issues with her parents. 

    I also appreciated them showing a big focus on her recovery, being realistic about what she faced legally, emotionally and exploring the aspects of addiction, withdrawl and the consequences. 

   I think that Sidelined ended well, and was wrapped up and presented what I was looking for and needed after an emotional story like this. 

Bottom Line: Emotional and realistic contemporary.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Have you ever been tempted to take more meds than you should?