Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Reaching Avery
SERIES: Port Haven #2
AUTHOR: Jaclyn Osborn
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 368 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2018
BLURB:
Maverick Blake is the typical jock: athletic, handsome, extroverted, and popular. But there is so much more to him. Beneath the pretty face, there’s a guy who loves science, theater, and comic books. He wishes people would look past his appearance and see him for who he truly is, but most are only interested in the surface.
Avery Kinkead is used to people disappointing him—hurting him. He sees the world through leery eyes, and doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to escape the demons in his own mind. He has suffered more than most people twice his age, and his scars—both mental and physical—leave him untrusting of everyone, except for his younger brother and mom.
When Maverick meets Avery, he sees a broken boy who tries desperately to stay invisible, but Mav can’t stay away. Not when he sees the shadows behind Avery’s blue eyes, and the mistrust in his every glance.
It starts with a simple friendship, but soon, their hearts start getting involved, and things get complicated. As if graduating high school wasn’t hard enough.
REVIEW:
I loved the first book in this series and couldn’t wait to start this one. While we did meet Mav, the theatre loving jock, in the first book of the series, the Port Haven books can definitely be read as standalones.
Unlike the first book, Noah’s Song, Reaching Avery is told from the point of view of both main characters. Mav is starting his senior year of high school having just said goodbye to his boyfriend and half of his friends who are headed off to college. He has a horrible feeling that Chris, his boyfriend, isn’t as broken up about the distance between them as Mav is. It seems to Mav that everyone around him can’t wait to ditch the town of Port Haven, whereas he wants to stay there forever. I loved the character that was Mav. He was one of those guys who was loved enough by everyone that he could be gay if he wanted and nobody was going to give him shit for it. Well, that, and the fact that he was a huge football player who could intimidate all of the homophobes. He hated the fact that everyone saw him as “the jock” and couldn’t understand that he was so much more than that. He was actually just a big old sensitive soul who wanted someone special to love, and who needed to be loved in return.
Avery was much more complicated. Avery came from the poor side of town, literally, the wrong side of the tracks. At thirteen, his brother had seemingly begun a quest to sleep his way through the female population, and his mother worked as a stripper to make ends almost meet. Avery rarely had enough to eat, his shoes were falling apart, and he lived in fear that his father would find them again and at best they’d have to move. Avery was also use to being bullied at school, and he had no reason to think that his new school in Port Haven would be any different. He had so much pain built up inside him, that the only way to keep going was to cut himself and release some of the pressure.
The connection between these boys was pretty much instant, but I think that’s kind of how teens can be. Mav is going through some first love angst over his relationship with Chris, and Avery obviously has numerous issues, which the author used to keep these two apart for longer despite their attraction. I liked that they spent time becoming friends first, because for Mav’s character to be believable, he needed to be crushed by losing his first love.
As with the first book of the series, the secondary characters were also well developed and played a big part in moving the story along. If you have read Noah’s Song then you’ll be as glad as I was that Noah and Bas make a brief appearance in this book. The next couple is already set up and ready to go, now I just need to patiently await the third installment to this series.
RATING:
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