Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Didn’t See You Coming
SERIES: The Haunting of Pinedale High
AUTHOR: Gabbi Grey
NARRATOR: Michael Ferraiuolo
PUBLISHER: The Wild Rose Press
LENGTH: 5 hours and 23 minutes
RELEASE DATE: January 6, 2025
BLURB:
Holden and Peyton don’t expect much from senior year. He probably won’t manage to date any guys. She’ll still pine over Juliette, the beautiful and unattainable cheerleader. But when they step between class bullies and Oliver, a super-hot transfer student, their year starts to go off the rails.
As a star football player, Oliver hadn’t anticipated trouble. Turns out Pinedale High not only comes with bullies but with new friends, plus the ghost of a Civil War soldier and a shy naked guy in the library. Between the living and the dead, senior year is about to get interesting.
REVIEW:
Holden and Peyton are starting their senior year. They are both out – Holden by choice and in solidarity with Peyton who was outed by a shared surreptitious video of her kissing another girl 🙁 First day of school a new student arrives. Oliver is a football player who has moved with his aunt and uncle after his grandmother had health issues and couldn’t take care of him any more. His parents had died when he was much younger and so he’s crossed the country from Oregon to North Carolina. His uncle is black and his aunt is white and the jocks at this school are bigots. Sigh. Peyton moves in to shut things down when the taunting starts and Holden tries to diffuse things and thus begins senior year.
Peyton is attracted to the head cheerleader. Who is black. Peyton and Juliette both have ubersuccessful siblings and their parents when them to follow in their shoes. Juliette has the added burden of being a good example and role model in a racial context as well. Her mother is a doctor and her brother is going to Harvard Law and she needs to be a doctor too. Guess what she wants doesn’t matter?? Peyton doesn’t want to follow in her brilliant older sister’s footsteps either.
Holden is working to help his mom ad doesn’t have time to focus on his studies like he wishes he could. Oliver gets a job working at the same supermarket with Holden and the become friends. Oliver would like more, but nobody knows that. He’s still having trouble with the other jocks because of the racial thing. Adding queer on top of it doesn’t seem to be a good idea.
Then there are the ghosts. The ghosts that only Juliette and Holden can see. Oh dear. This is a conundrum! Senior year just got a lot more interesting!
Oh this was so fun! I haven’t read much YA lately and I really really enjoyed this There are a lot of points of view here – which I know some people don’t like – but I think that it really added to the depth of the story and illuminated what each character was going though. Adolescence is a tough time. Whether it’s living up to brilliant order siblings, helping a single mom with both care for a younger sibling AND a getting a paying job to help support the family, losing parents and having to move across the country, realizing that you’re not straight, or a combination of any or all of the aforementioned, it’s really a confusing time. I really adored these characters, both the living and the not so living 😉 Holden and Oliver are adorable! I loved Oliver’s family. I loved Holden and Peyton’s fierceness. Juliette and Peyton both have parental pressures they are trying to live up to. Luckily they are also pretty good about communication and their moms are pretty cool too 😉 Then there are our ghostly pals, Willy and Duncan. And we can’t forget about Oliver’s aunt and uncle who have taken him in. Finally the school custodian does everyone a solid with his help! I honestly hope we get to hear a lot more of his story in this series. There are definitely some bumps along they way, but all of these characters end up in a great place. There isn’t really any steam here, but that’s totally fine. This is a YA and a character driven story so it wasn’t missed. I can’t wait to see what the next story will be like. I’m here for it! Recommended
Michael Ferraiuolo does a really stupendous job with narrating this story. There are LOT of characters – and chapters alternate between various POVs – Oliver, Peyton, Duncan, Juliette, Willy and Holden all have their very distinct voices and POVs. I never had any doubt about who was speaking. Adding in the adults and I’m not sure HOW he kept it straight whose voice was next! This is a super sweet story with some kinda clueless teenagers but it was really amazing how things all came together. If only all kids had these kinds of supportive adults in their lives! The world would be a much better place. I loved the atmosphere, the accents, the tenderness and the fierceness of these characters and I can’t wait for the next book in this series 🙂
RATING: 
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