I had a hard time with this one. Rocks and Stars was a solid coming out story. Kyle realized and accepted she was a lesbian quickly. But she ran into issues when it came to acting on it.

I was expecting soccer to play a bigger role in the story, given the synopsis. I was a little disappointed when it didn't. Soccer seemed more like a way to introduce and connect characters rather than being about the sport.

There was some light romance. It was slow, and Kyle seemed to take too long to recognize what the reader knew in the love triangle presented. In fact, I thought too much time was spent with the wrong person, despite the lopsided presentation of characters and their likability. But then again, I guess that is reminiscent of real life and the individual not always making the right choice despite it being obvious to everyone else.

There was nothing groundbreaking about this book. I think that is what made it a difficult read. Everything about this story I found to be fairly common in terms of themes and feelings explored. It was just okay, overall, and left me feeling kinda of indifferent overall.

Cute, fun, quick read. Good character development and plotline. Look forward to reading more by this author.

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. Wow. The word that comes to mind after reading this is REAL. Throughout the journey of this book the angst of accepting who you are and being pulled into a direction that you really don't want to travel but have no choice. The messed up family dynamics and Kyle's relationships with her best friend, girlfriend, and girl she massively likes painted a picture of reality that really connected with me. This wasn't a perfect love story where the characters lived happily ever after; this was a coming of age coming out story as Kyle struggled to find her way and what she wants. Absolutely amazing and I can't wait to read more from this author.

This is quite a good young adult book. Kind of a coming out story. But the main character Kyle knows her sexuality and needs to explore how to act on her feelings.

I honestly thought this would be more a sporty book but unfortunately it isn't.

I understand that this is a debut novel and to be honest it wasn't all that bad. In fact it was pretty good. I'd like to have seen more characters in depth. There is plenty of potential in this author and I'll look out for her next. Enjoy!


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2419512088

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2LQLEANG36VAC/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Rocks and Stars was a great novel about coming out and being in your first relationship. Kyle works though being attracted to a fellow soccer teammate in high school but never reveals her attraction to the other teammate, then she goes off to college. When she gets to College she develops feeling for two of her teammates, but she is hesitant to get into a relationship with either of them at first. Kyle and Joey are great together but Kyle wants to keep it a friendship because she’s still working on her issues.

Another teammate has her eye on Kyle and flirts with her a lot and it seems to confuse Kyle.

This is a great first love/ coming out story. It doesn’t really sugar coat it as being easy at all, and we see how Kyle struggles with everything.
It’s a great read, I really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.

This is a coming out, young adult romance. It is centered around four young women on a Division 1 college soccer team. The women are Lindsay “Kyle”, Emily (her BFF), Joey and Jax.

The book begins with the high school graduation of Lindsay Kyle and her first two years at college. She realizes that she is a lesbian but has never acted upon these feelings. Emily and Kyle have been BFF’s since grade school and they share their secrets. Although Emily is straight, she supports Kyle’s sexual orientation. Joey and Jax are Kyle’s love interests.

I feel that Ms. Ledel has created an interesting and sensitive book. The storyline takes readers through Kyle’s emotional development. Kyle is a very good soccer player and a welcome addition to the college team. Emily is the team captain and helps with Kyle’s transition from high school soccer to Division 1 competition.

The game of soccer is the back drop for this story, not the focal point. The author did not use a great deal of soccer terminology so a non-athletic individual will enjoy the book. Unfortunately, drinking and hazing is written into the story. It is a sad fact that excessive drinking and hazing is a fact of life on campus. It was hard to believe that neither the coach nor the school took any action.

I recommend this book and give it 4 out of 5 stars. I look forward to Ms. Ledel’s next book.

I was given this ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

This was such an amazing read for me! It wasn't very unusual in its story, but either way, it left me wanting to read more, more, more. It's very well written, and the main character is really likeable and vulnerable and flawed, a feature I especially like in my ''heroes''. She's a typical college girl, with her insecurities and all.

I think I liked this story so much because I could see myself as Kyle in many ways. The way she loses herself in her first relationship, the apathy, the highs and the very lows.

To be recommended!

I received a free e-ARC of Rocks and Stars by Sam Ledel from NetGalley in return for review consideration. Rocks and Stars is a contemporary lesbian coming of age novel, due to be published by Bold Strokes Books in the UK on 17th April 2018.

I've seen a lot of discussion on the bookish internet about New Adult (NA) fiction, and I think Rock and Stars falls squarely into that category. Though romance is a significant element of the story, there's also a focus on Kyle learning more about herself away from her parents' home, and learning that she is responsible for her own choices and their outcomes.

As a character, I liked reading about Kyle's journey. She comes across to the outside world as a very buttoned-up character, but internally, she's full of emotions and anxieties that she doesn't feel able to express. This is the source of many of her problems over the course of the book, and it's satisfying to see her grow and learn to deal better with those feelings as the story develops.

There's also a strong friendship between Kyle and Emily, her hometown friend who attends the same college and plays on the same football team. Emily often stands in for the voice of the reader, encouraging Kyle to meet new people, voicing her concerns when Kyle makes poor decisions, and generally being a bit of a voice of wisdom. Ledel has also built a strong group of secondary characters around Kyle, largely comprising her teammates on the football team, who help to flesh out Kyle's life at college.

The romantic storylines are interesting, but largely seem to be used more as a tool to enable Kyle to learn more about herself, and about what she might want in a partner. Without wishing to spoil the book for anyone, this book provides a good, if very uncomfortable, example of some of the issues that can arise in relationships, and how quickly they can escalate from minor problems into much more serious ones. The tone of the book manages not to be preachy, because we see the relationship through Kyle's eyes and so we see how she makes excuses and tries to justify poor behaviour to herself, before she starts to realise that things aren't as positive as she'd convinced herself.

The writing, though, does fall a little flat. I found that, although I was interested in Kyle's storyline, I struggled to feel emotionally connected to her. Much of the emotional development takes place in Kyle's head, and as such, it felt like a lot of 'tell, don't show'. Although I could see her growing and changing as a character, I didn't feel connected to that.

There were also some issues for me around the representation of bisexuality in the book.  I don't think it was intentional, but when the main bisexual character is portrayed as unpleasant (compared to the straight and gay characters), unstable, and possible unfaithful romantically (cheating with a man), it just reinforces some of the damaging stereotypes around bisexuality. I appreciate wanting to include a more diverse range of characters in a story, but would prefer to see no representation rather than poor representation like this.

As far as coming of age stories go, Rocks and Stars has an interesting main character and a setting which moves away from the more typical high school romances to a college, allowing for exploration of some different and difficult topics. Unfortunately, I struggled to connect emotionally to the character, and the bisexual representation is troubling and full of stereotypes, and so ultimately, this was not a book I particularly enjoyed.

This is a strong start from this author, and I'm looking forward to what she writes next. It's a definite YA book, so if you like that genre than this is a book for you. Personally, there was a little too much teenage angst for me, so I felt a little disconnected at times. For instance, the naivety of Kyle when it came to Jax was hard to read at a certain point, but only because I'm older. My younger self would have related much more!

Also, a warning that this book ends abruptly. I'm guessing there is a second book intended...? If there isn't, that ending sucked. If there is, then just be prepared for a lot of things to still be hanging. I'd read the second though!

4 stars if there is a second book. 3 stars if that's it.

the book is a YA/NA novel told in the first person present and centers around the first two years of Kyle's life on college. She knows she is a lesbian, but she can't cope yet with the feelings and hormonal rushes and crushes. She has to learn a few things the hard way and it's painful to read.
That I really didn't want to read on a few times is only due to the engaging way the author made me relate to Kyle's feelings. From my adult perspective I wanted to shake Kyle a few times and point the obvious things out to her, but I guess that's part of a great YA/NA book.

Rocks and Stars by Sam Ledel is a well written YA/NA book about a teenager coming to terms with her sexuality set against the background of college soccer. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this title. I was pleasantly surprised.

It’s told in the first person, present tense which I usually don’t like because when done poorly it can ruin the book. This author does a really good job with this narrative style and it fits the theme of the book.

Kyle leaves for college suspecting that she is a lesbian. She’s pretty sure, but she doesn’t know what to do about it. She becomes part of a new soccer team and she meets two very different women who will play huge roles in her coming out process. I can’t say much more because it would be spoiler after spoiler.

For the first third of the book, I thought, “Yes, this is how I figured it would go”, but then Part 2 happens and I thought, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming”. I liked that the author did not play it safe and hit all the notes that you usually see in coming of age stories.

I enjoyed this novel, much more than I expected to and I give it a thumbs up.

I received an ARC of this novel via Netgalley by Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This is a story about a young woman who is trying to understand herself and her growing attraction to other women. Kyle Lindsay comes for a family where both parents are hardworking and devoted to not only her but her younger brother. Her love and skills for playing soccer has been her ticket not only for a education but also a chance to play in a Division 1 squad. This is a nice story about finding and accepting herself. Nice read.

This is a young adult themed book. As in the majority of books in which the protagonist tries to clarify the new and different sensations that she experiences, in this story there is discovery, doubts and insecurities, related to the attraction that the protagonist feels towards her classmates and teammates.

The story is quite sweet, with little drama. In addition to her discovery, the protagonist must face the changes in her family while leaving home to begin university. There is conflict with her parents, with her best friend, fear of her own feelings. A fairly common situation for a teenager. There is some soccer in the plot, mainly referred to training times, but sport is not the main background.

Overall, the story is treated with gentleness and kindness, the reading is pleasant and in the end leaves a positive feeling.

<i>An ARC was sent to me from Bold Strokes Books through NetGalley for an honest review </i>

Kyle heads off to University in Texas to play division D1 soccer. She's caught up with classes and soccer and girls. Jax and Joey are on her soccer team and Kyle struggles with her attraction to both girls. Kyle came out to her best friend in high school but she'd never been in a relationship before. College is hard. Relationships are hard. But it's all a part of growing up and Kyle does her very best, while chasing her dreams.

Kyle was a pretty cool character - I felt like it was missing a little bit of depth to it however to be totally relatable. I really liked Joey - she was really likeable, sweet and cute and would have been the kind of person I could totally see Kyle ending up with. But, the first interaction between Kyle and Jax has that sizzle of chemistry, that instant connection, that didn't I didn't see so much with Joey. Joey or Jax. Ah the big question in young Kyle's life. I found it really hard to get feel a connection to the characters. Kyle's feelings were really one-dimensional and repetitive towards both girls - there wasn't anything really unique or distinguishable between her attraction to each of the girls - and I found I couldn't really get invested in either characters or Kyle's because I was at such a distance. <spoiler> I was invested in the wrong character, which made the sudden change at the end difficult to keep going. </spoiler>

Overall this a really good YA story, about coming to terms with how you are and the experiences of first year at university, not necessarily a romance or as much as a soccer story as I had hoped. But as someone who needs to be connected to the characters to lose myself in a book, I found it hard to be fully invested in this story and it took away from some of the enjoyment. I really enjoyed this authors writing style, and I'll definitely be checking out the next book from this author.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was pulled into this story of Kyle's coming out as she takes on the challenge of discovering herself at College. Kyle was a likable character that you couldn't help but root for and want the best. In this book she has two paths she can take, the Joey path or the Jax path. Of course she chooses probably the more difficult one where as the reader you know its the wrong decision. In saying that I think it was the most character building decision because she was less in control and found herself being pulled out of the closet quicker going down this path than if she went down the path with the character we know she would have been better off with (I hope that all makes sense, I'm trying not to give too much away).

Good book that I enjoyed. As a romance lover I would have liked more around the end. I couldn't help but feel like it was leaving it open for a second book however I think that would be unlikely.

At first I was happy about the amount of soccer that was in the beginning of the book but then it became more about the team doing activities together rather than soccer.  That part was a bit disappointing as the author did a good job at describing the soccer scenes.

I liked pretty much all the characters in the book, but I especially liked Joey and wanted to get to know her more.  I wished that there would've been more time in the book describing Kyle in the "right" relationship.

I thought that Kyle's feelings and emotions were quite realistic even though it was sometimes frustrating to read.

Overall, it was a good, not bad for a debut author and I look forward to reading her next book.

This was a cute YA book. I would consider this a coming out story with a little bit of romance. The story is about Kyle’s life during her first two years at college. Kyle doesn’t question that fact she is a lesbian, she understands she is, what she doesn’t really know is how to act on her feelings. Kyle is a college soccer player, so this is a sports book, but it wasn’t as “sporty” as I hoped. Overall, a decent debut read, but nothing groundbreaking.

While I liked all the characters, I wish they all had a bit more depth. I enjoyed Kyle’s relationship with her best friend quite a bit. And I thought some of Kyle’s behavior was pretty realistic at times. I always appreciate when YA authors write characters that actually feel YA. The problem was I just wanted to connect more with all of them. There is so little I actually know about the characters besides a few surface things. I think if Ledel could breathe some life into her characters, in her next book, it would really help her writing.

I said before this is a light romance. Actually most of the book is a love triangle. I’m not usually a fan of triangles, but sometimes they work. My issue with this book is too much time was spent in the “wrong” relationship. It’s not as if both suitors are on a level playing field. Ledel clearly made one character much more likeable, trusting, and steady than the other. Too me it was obvious Kyle loved one woman and only lusted after the other. Most of the book we are waiting for Kyle to figure out what we as readers already know. Unfortunately, it took way too long for that moment to come.

The soccer parts are not huge in this book. While the soccer team is always doing activities together, not much of the actually sport is played. I was disappointed as I wanted to read about some of the play-off games. My point, if you are not a sports fan, you can still read this. If you are a sports fan, you might be a little disappointed.

As I said above, it was a cute YA read, but it has its issues. When I read books like this (that are so down the middle) I really can’t recommend them or not. If you are a big YA fan, you might want to read this. Otherwise it probably won’t be for you. I did read that Ledel is writing a YA fantasy book next. I will absolutely be reading that. I just hope she really works on her character development.

This was a sweet coming-out/ coming of age story. I liked that it wasn’t absolutely clear from the first chapter on, who Kyle is going to end upo with. There was a lot of back and forth for half the book and I fought myself rooting for Joey. There was just something about Jax and her intentions that made her more and more not like able the further the story progressed.

Since the story was written in Kyle’s POV, the reader only saw Jax’s and Joey’s intentions through her eyes. At some points it was a bit frustrating that she didn’t see when somebody was flirting with her or how, especially Joey, felt about her.

All in all it was a good book about friendship, coming out and first/ confusing love.

An interesting portrayal of teenage angst and young love. The main characters were mostly sweet and realistically immature, but some of them were very cursory in places which ultimately let down the book. If the target audience is youth fiction that may be understandable as the book is largely well written, but the story would have been better if the girlfriends were given more depth, especially Jax. Too much of her motivation and personality was implied rather than written.