Being in the popular clique isn’t always fun!

Synopsis

The perfect guy, the perfect location. What could go wrong?

Hadley Daniels’s life seems perfect. Before the beginning of sophomore year of high school, Hadley and her family move to a beautiful beach town, where she makes amazing new friends and lands the boyfriend of her dreams. She and Nick form a deep bond, but insecurity sets in when Hadley discovers her boyfriend once had a huge crush on her friend—who just happens to be the beautiful teen TV star, Simone Hendrickson. Nick claims to be over Simone, but then Hadley is blindsided with the news that Nick and Simone kissed after school. Now Hadley must determine who is telling the truth. 

Love, betrayal, friendship…who needs TV drama when you’re busy competing with a star?

My review

After recently moving, Hadley is finally feeling that she found her place. She lives with her parents in a beautiful beach town, she has amazing new friends and has an amazing boyfriend with Nick Jenkins. Even if the contact with her former best friend is getting lost, she feels she can rely on many other people.
However, insecurities arise when Hadley discovers that Nick had a huge crush on her friend and TV star Simone Hendrickson. To make things even worse, there is a gossip going around that makes Hadley doubting everything she once believed…

Before you read this book, I would recommend to read also the first book. I didn’t read it, and even if you can read this one as a standalone, it may help to understand the characters and the past better.

While reading this story I had the initial feeling that Hadley was one of the ‘lucky’ girls. She is part of a group with popular girls, and even befriended a TV Star! Of course if you are part of a group, there are always people you like more and people you like less.
And now Hadley even is in a relationship with her best friend Nick.
But no matter how good life is looking for Hadley, she had the typical teenage insecurities and doubts.

The author manages again to capture the reality of teenagers perfectly. Not only does she capture the beauty of a first love, but also the self – doubt and trust issues.
Hadley as a girlfriend is different than Nick’s previous girlfriends, and she is afraid that being different will be the thing that he will get bored off.
And not only does she has her own insecurities, she is also fighting against a supposed friend flirting too openly and even a bit over the top.

Hadley learns through this story, sometimes the hard way, that even friends can be stabbing you in the back. But she also learns who her real friends are, and support her.

This whole book is actually a learning process. The characters learn to see who really has their back, learn about love, trust and slowly they also learn to speak out their fears.
But the thing I liked the most that our characters learned, is putting differences aside and be there for each other in time of need. It may seem a very strange thing to say, but when you’re reading this story, it will be clear what I mean!

I found this a bittersweet story about a teenager finding herself and love in a world that can be too complicated. But it was also enjoyable to read how the characters are growing towards adulthood and make up their own mind!
It made me rethink about my own teenage years all over again and made me realize how things I did then formed me into the person I am now!