The Secret Year

I was really looking forward to reading this book. One of the reasons for that is its beautiful cover. It's intriguing, beautiful and hot - just like the book.

I love the stories that are narrated from a boy's point of view so this was another bonus. Also, Colt is such an appealing character that he makes you really want to know what's going on in his mind throughout the novel. And even Julia, who is essentially never really present as an active character, is so well-drawn that it's a joy to read about her.

The complexity of these two characters is one of the strong points of Hubbard's book. As a reader, you never quite know why Julia and Colt started and kept their 'riverside' relationship - and it seems that neither do they. Colt can show more never be quite sure why Julia is with him or whether she's just a stuck-up bitch or a girl that can't afford to be anything but a stuck-up bitch because of the world she lives in. She's an ambiguous character and she stays that way right till the end, and that's what I really like about this book. Hubbard doesn't try to make Julia look nice and that's what makes Colt and Julia's relationship look real and the characters true and believable.

The same goes for secondary characters, they're all well-developed and true. The plotting is well done with the coexisting past and present stories that emphasize how stuck in the past Colt really is and how he has to realize that Julia's death wasn't his fault before he can go on and really live in the present.

The concept of the book is brilliant, characters are appealing and easy to identify with, and Hubbard's writing style draws the reader's attention to the important issues. show less

Wow. I wasn't even supposed to be reading this book yet. I certainly hadn't planned on finishing it in one day and posting this review so soon, but here I am. And the only reason I can give you is that after reading through the first few pages I couldn't stop and once I'd finished I just wanted to tell the whole world to read this book.

The story is told from Colt's point of view with snippets from Julia's journal entries. From the beginning Colt was a character I could relate to. I'd been there. Of course nothing as traumatic as the person I loved dying. But I've been unable to grieve for the end of a relationship because as far as the world was concerned, it had never existed.

It's not an easy position to be in. Pretending you don't show more hurt. Trying not to flinch at the mention of their name. Wondering it they ever truly loved you or just the idea of being with you and the freedom from reality which that entailed.

For Colt, Julia's death has left him broken, but not in the pitiful my-whole-life-is-over-I-can't-exist-without-you kind of way I've seen portrayed in other books (Hubbard captures the male POV perfectly). He's left with questions he thinks he'll never know the answer to, until Julia's brother gives him Julia's diary. Her words, her voice, haunt him as he tries to get over her and move on with his life.

I truly fell in love with this book. With Colt. With his struggle to understand his place with Julia and his place in a world which is divided by class. It's incredible. Raw and emotional. Heart-achingly beautiful. The kind of writing that sticks with you long after you've finished reading the final page.

Fair warning: there is sex. And swearing. And drinking. To me it was absolutely necessary to the storyline and adds to the authenticity of the characters, but if this is something you shy away from when reading YA, this book may not be for you.

Other than that there is not a single person I wouldn't recommend this book to. It is now one of my favorites. A book I will visit time and time again. show less

This book was absolutely beautiful. It was fluid and lyrical - like a wave crashing onto you, completely consuming your mind and body in the rush of energy and noise. The book reaches out and grabs your heart, twisting it until you loose your breath and cannot form coherent words.

The Secret Year follows Colt in the aftermath of his lover, Julia's, death. He is overcome with grief, but the worst part is that he cannot show his grief, because to the general public, Julia probably didn't even know him by name. Julia lived on the mountain, she was beautiful, rich and popular. Colt lives in the flats with a dysfunctional family and is not popular at all. It was a Romeo and Juliet story, but no one ever found out, and Romeo kept living.

The show more Secret Year is what comes after. The grief, how you deal with the pain that never quite fades, and learning to move on.

This was really a book that made you feel. It didn't have the most exciting, action - filled plot, but it didn't need one. It is character driven - focussing on who they are (or were), what they want, and what they do. There are a lot of letters throughout the pages - written to Colt from Julia, but she never intended for him to see them, like a diary. That aspect makes the words so personal and vulnerable that you physically ache out of the pain these characters are facing.

Now I have to say something I have never said before... If anything that I have said makes you roll your eyes, or sounds ridiculous, or boring - don't read this book. Because honestly, you would not be able to give it the respect it deserves and I could not stand someone saying bad things about a novel like this. It becomes so personal to the reader that bashing the book or the author would be extremely hurtful to anyone who read it. You'd be wasting more time than your own.

With that said, if you can relate to what I am saying, or if you want to experience the emotional games this book plays on you, definitely pick it up. It was an extremely quick read - I read it in one sitting. I cannot wait until I have another book by this author in my to-read pile. show less

Hmmm. The Secret Year was definitely not what I expected. I thought it was going to be a little bit like Thirteen Reasons Why (a book I absolutely adored). Not that The Secret Year deals with suicide in any way, shape, or form, but because they're both male-narrated young-adult books that have the protagonist deal with the death of a female they had a semi-relationship with. The big difference between the two was that The Secret Year was way less melodramatic than I expected it to be. I wasn't a complete and total mess the way I was when I finished Thirteen Reasons Why. Not that that's a bad thing, but it was still unexpected. In spite of this, I thought that The Secret Year was a solid and pretty great read.

I've never really gotten show more into male-narrated books. Well, that's not entirely true. I have gotten into them, but it's easier for me to get into the mind of someone if it's female since I'm one of them. This is especially true when it comes to YA books (you'd think it'd be the other way around for me considering how much I bitch and moan about the female heroines in a lot of young adult books). But I loved Colt right from the very beginning and it took absolutely no effort for me to get into his head. His voice just rang true for someone who was going through that sort of situation. I could sense his frustration with trying to have some sort of future with someone yet being tied down to someone from your past who was never really yours to begin with. It's weird how much I loved Colt since, in real life, a guy like that would piss me off to no end (in regards to his wishy-washy behavior), especially if I was his girlfriend. But since I'm just a lone reader, it's okay for me to love him and not feel like something in my life went off track.

The thing that was unexpected for me was that Colt didn't pine for Julia as much as I thought he would. Sure, he was sad about her death and had a hard time letting go, but it was refreshing to see him not go completely round the bend and make an active attempt to move on with his life. Speaking of his life, I loved his relationship with his family. It was another aspect of Colt that rang true. His relationship with his mother was hilarious and kept the book from being too angsty. His relationship with his dad was deliciously flawed. But I absolutely adored his relationship with his brother (and I also adored his brother). It was just so heart-warming to see him accept him without any grandstanding. It was what it was and that's it. Pure love.

When it comes to the females in this story, I was a bit hot and cold with them. I loved Syd at the beginning. I was "meh" about her towards the middle, but I was back to love in the end. Kirby was another one I semi-liked in the beginning, but then I started getting extremely annoyed with her. Maybe I would've seen things from her point of view if I was in her shoes, but since The Secret Year is narrated by Colt and we mainly saw his point of view, I'm just going to side with him and say that I felt like Kirby was the typical nagging girlfriend. And then we have Julia, who didn't annoy me as much as I assumed she would. Sure, she did seem to think she had an unfair entitlement to Colt, but that was just the way she was. A couple of times I found myself feeling extremely bad for her (and not just in the "because she's dead" kind of way) since she was clearly torn as to the path she wanted to take. There was just this sense of vulnerability to her that I really couldn't help but empathize with.

Anyway, I have to say that I really enjoyed The Secret Year. It wasn't my favorite YA read, by far, but I thought it was a great, bittersweet novel regarding love, loss, and being an outsider. It was definitely a page-turner and I ended up reading it in one sitting. Plus, I felt content when I finished. I really can't ask for more. show less

The basic premise of a boy and a girl from opposite worlds/classes/situations is nothing new, but the way this one plays out certainly is. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. I surprised myself, even, with how much I felt for the main character, Colton. He's intense and desperate and sad, and he's also this regular teen boy living his life. He's not rich or popular or the best looking guy in school, and sex is a part of his life.

Julie dies (not a spoiler!) and he's stuck with a hole in his life that no one knows exists. Except him. He's left with questions that will never be answered: Would Julia ever have dated him openly? Would their hook-up relationship have faded into nothing eventually? Colt doesn't know and now he never show more will, and neither will the reader. THE SECRET YEAR follows him as he comes to terms with the aftermath of Julia's death and what's been left behind, and figures out who he wants to be.

This is a solid debut for Jennifer Hubbard, and I look forward to more books of hers in the future.

See more of my reviews at StoryboundGirl {dot} com. show less

Reviewed by Cat for TeensReadToo.com

While family and friends are still reeling over the Labor Day car accident that took senior high school student Julia Vernon's life, Colt is trying to figure out how to mourn her loss and the absence of their year-long, secret relationship.

How does he grieve for the girl who was never really his, yet who he knew in a way no one else did? Colt is shocked when, one day at school, Julia's brother hands him a journal detailing the course of their relationship, as he simultaneously relives the past *and* works to move forward.

Intertwined with the present are a series of flashbacks prompted by Julia's diary. We learn the details of their affair, how deeply divided their class/societal divides ran, and how show more those hostilities culminate among their small town's youth in the aftermath of Julia's demise.

This is a novel for outsiders - and when ultimately stripped of our outward trappings, aren't we all outsiders? Jennifer Hubbard captures the trauma and agony of the achingly grim slowness that is high school with honesty and blistering clarity.

THE SECRET YEAR sharply portrays those years of being torn between who/what others perceive us to be, who we really are, and how hard it can be to reconcile two such seemingly disparate halves of the whole, not to mention the overwhelming sense of impossibility that looms when trying to break free of that social image. And finally, she perfectly renders the pain of first love, the hope that it will be forever, and the heartache of learning it's only the first step into a much larger world. show less

For a year, Colt secretly met Julia on Friday nights at the bridge by his house. There, they spent countless hours in her car, talking, kissing and "fogging up her windows". No one knew of their relationship - not Colt's friends, his parents, his brother and especially not Julia's boyfriend. They found a connection - the rich girl with the boy from the other side of the tracks. They became the one thing that each was missing from their life.. that is until the night that Julia was killed in a car accident.

Now Colt is left with no one to talk to about Julia. He just can't seem to get over the girl that was never really his to begin with. Then one day Julia's brother gives him a journal full of letters from Julia made out to him. Through show more Julia's journal entries he'll reminisce over their "secret year" and maybe come to terms with her death and finally move on with his life.

I truly enjoyed reading The Secret Year. The fact that it's told through Colt's point-of-view really gave the story and his relationship with Julia depth and an emotional undertone. I especially liked getting to read of Julia's feelings and emotions through her diary entries. Although her death does occur right at the start of the book, you are still able to see what kind of person she was and the role that Colt played in her life.

I think Ms. Hubbard did a great job in spacing the journal entries (which I seemed to look forward to the most), with Colt's reminiscing and present day issues. I loved not only reading about their year together but I also loved the friends (Syd), Colt's family (especially his brother) and even some of Julia's friends (her BFF and even Austin, her boyfriend).

I was emotionally invested reading The Secret Year. It was intense and emotional and bittersweet. It was also fast-paced and way too short (at just under 210 pages). A phenomenal debut by Ms. Hubbard. show less