Review: Heat of the Moment by Lauren Barnholdt

Heat of the Moment   by Lauren Barnholdt

Before graduation, I promise to...learn to trust. In the first book in the Moment of Truth series, Lyla discovers that trusting her head might be easy but trusting her heart is a whole other matter.
Each book in this paperback original series is told from the perspective of a different girl—Lyla, Aven, and Quinn—former best friends who wrote emails to their future selves back in freshman year about one thing they hope to accomplish before they graduate. When the emails get delivered on the first morning of their senior trip all three girls will spend the next three days trying to keep the promises they made to themselves four years ago. While each book follow’s one girl’s life-changing adventure, you have to read them all to get the whole story, including why they’re no longer friends and whether they can get their friendship back on track.
Lyla McAfee had all but forgotten the email that she wrote to herself freshman year and scheduled to be delivered right before graduation—the one promising that she’d learn to trust by the end of senior year. But when she receives it the first morning of her senior trip to Florida her life is sent into a tailspin. Soon she’s questioning her seemingly perfect relationship with her boyfriend, Derrick; her attraction to the school player, Beckett; and whether ending her friendship with Aven and Quinn, her former BFFs, was one of the biggest mistakes of her life.
The first book in a captivating summer trilogy, Heat of the Moment flawlessly balances romance and humor as Lyla embarks on her totally reluctant but completely irresistible journey of self-discovery. And readers will have a chance to discover whole truth about the fight that ended Lyla, Quinn, and Aven’s friendship in the next two installments of the series, coming out later the same summer!

Publishes in US:  May 12th 2015 by HarperTeen
Genre: ya contemp light
Source: Harper Teen via edelweiss
Series?  Yes Moment of Truth #1
One Moment in Time (Moment of Truth, #2) Expected publication: June 16th 2015 by HarperTeen
From This Moment (Moment of Truth, #3) Expected publication: July 14th 2015 by HarperTeen

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   I wanted to read this because it sounded like a nice summer read but also one that would have some depth. I also love the premise of writing to your older self and seeing how those goals and promises line up with how life turns out three years later. 

   The friendship between the three is shrouded in her hurt, she feels like they betrayed her trust, and they have been estranged for almost as long as they wrote the emails. Of course, getting the emails they wrote so long ago, and when they were the three musketeers brings back memories and thinking of the others again. They are put in the same room for their senior trip, so being in close quarters again brings out some of their feelings, and the ways they've changed. 

   The lightness of the story was nice. I have read a lot of really emotional, draining and intense contemporaries lately, so this was a nice change of pace. It didn't deal with completely fluffy issues all of the time, but it was more day to day, everyone has been hurt type things. It gave it just enough depth but also didn't weigh it down and it is def a summery read. 

   Derrick and Lyla got together right after the explosion of her friendship with Aven and Quinn. So she has made him the center of her recreated world. She has made friends, or some form of it, with the people that he was friends with. He is thoughtful and considerate, that is until the senior trip and the lies she told to cover her butt on what was ultimately innocent until she made it otherwise. I understand that the premise is shaking up her life again, and looking deeper into her trust issues, and to do that she has to realize that she hasn't really fixed them and what she does to cover it up. She tried to convince herself that it was just a vague goal, and that she had worked on her issues, and the problem between her and Derrick really just served as a glaring response that she hadn't really dealt with trusting at all.

   Her secret and what her friends did to make her feel betrayed was really only hinted at, even though I had an idea of what may have happened. The synopsis makes it seem like you will need to read all three perspectives to really understand what caused their friendship to end, and reasoning of all of them. I will probably give the others a read. Especially if they go up for grabs as an ARC or if library gets it. 

   Beckett was typical mysterious bad boy type. He plays with her head a bit, flirts and gives her a nickname. He rides a motorcycle and just hasn't really been much of a presence besides another body taking up a seat in her AP classes. He is funny though, and I do like their chemistry. However, The love triangle. But I guess I can't fault it too much because I knew going in. 

    I could feel for Lyla, but all of her lies got a little much. I understood more and more why she feels the need to cover things up, but also, it is like I want to pull her aside, Gibbs her with the clipboard and tell her it only makes things worse. 

   However, I did like how it ended for her, and the road that she was on as far as realizing her faults, and working towards better relationships, and really trusting and giving others a chance. 

Bottom Line: Nice summer read

My question to you, my lovely readers:
What would you like to promise yourself to accomplish in five years?