Book Review: Switching Gears by Chantele Sedgwick

Book: Switching Gears by Chantele Sedgwick

Genre: YA Contemporary
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I bought this at the writing conference I went to a few weeks ago, especially since it was written by the author in charge of the conference and someone I connected with years ago through blogging. Also, this is a companion book to her book I read awhile back called Love, Lucas. That one was about the sister of boy who died from cancer. This one was about the girlfriend of the same boy.

Well, they never actually were officially boyfriend/girlfriend, but she lived next door to him for years and loved him forever. They only confessed just before he died. Sadness. And so this story picks up a few months later and she is still dealing with his death and his loss.

So she immerses herself into her love and hobby of mountain bike racing. There's a new-ish boy (it's been about a year since he moved in) that has bugged her since he arrived and who actually took over her position as captain of the bike team. She does not like him.

Which means, of course, that they will connect! And so that's the love story. He's had his eye on her since the beginning but she has been annoyed by him. All that changes of course, and he is not what she thought he was. It's a blast to read/watch unfold.

Meanwhile, she has her family life situation to deal with too, which is that her mom is suffering from early onset Alzheimers. More sadness. Yes.

But despite all this sadness, I totally enjoyed this book. Fast and easy to read. Lovely romance. Cute characters. Fun look at mountain biking, which... why would anyone do this? CRAZY! Anyway, these books remind me of Kasie West sort of books and you all know how I feel about those!

Great job Chantele! Okay... so what's next??/