Review: Until Friday Night, by Abbi Glines

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Synopsis

To everyone who knows him, West Ashby has always been that guy: the cocky, popular, way-too-handsome-for-his-own-good football god who led Lawton High to the state championships. But while West may be Big Man on Campus on the outside, on the inside he’s battling the grief that comes with watching his father slowly die of cancer.

Two years ago, Maggie Carleton’s life fell apart when her father murdered her mother. And after she told the police what happened, she stopped speaking and hasn’t spoken since. Even the move to Lawton, Alabama, couldn’t draw Maggie back out. So she stayed quiet, keeping her sorrow and her fractured heart hidden away.

As West’s pain becomes too much to handle, he knows he needs to talk to someone about his father—so in the dark shadows of a post-game party, he opens up to the one girl who he knows won’t tell anyone else.

West expected that talking about his dad would bring some relief, or at least a flood of emotions he couldn’t control. But he never expected the quiet new girl to reply, to reveal a pain even deeper than his own—or for them to form a connection so strong that he couldn’t ever let her go…

Review

4.5 out of 5 stars

Confession...from my very first Abbi Glines experience I've kind of been a sucker for her books.  I buy them and read them just as soon as I can.  Of course over the years there are some stories and some characters I love more than others.  Maggie and West happen to fall into the category of ones that I love.  

Unit Friday Night is written with such heart and soul.  I found myself emotionally attached to both Maggie and West.  I worried for them, I cried for them, I smiled with them and loved every second spent watching those two fall in love.    

This is a YA book and therefore it isn't as necessarily as "steamy" as some of Abbi's other stories, but that's not to say this book wasn't full of chemistry.  It just means there is so much "more" to this journey.  There were plenty of moments that will melt your insides and get your blood rushing but those moments aren't all tied to the physical.  The emotional bond between Maggie and West felt real and I commend Abbi Glines for exploring the worry and doubt of two people bonding over life changing circumstances.  For pushing those boundaries and exploring whether or not a real love could even be tangible.  

Maggie's strength was astounding.  Her ability to see beyond someone's facade, to sense beyond the surface and know what a person needs is simply stunning.  Her life wasn't cookie cutter perfect and she has no reason to want to help anyone else, but she does and in it finds a desire to perhaps live more of a life than she's previously had the strength to do.  While West's journey through grief is a predominant theme of this story it doesn't overshadow his secondary journey of falling in love, of recognizing what love really is, how to not only appreciate it's gift but to also cherish it.  Abbi Glines did a really great job bringing all these themes and characters to life.  Without a doubt she captured the essence of everything a YA novel should be filled with.

As the story was wrapping up though I will have to confess I felt as though there were a few loose ends I would like to have seen more tied up.  I know there will be other books in this series, which I will without a doubt be reading, but I have no idea if we will get another West and Maggie book, or if one is even needed.  But I can say I would love to see more of these two.  Speaking of additional books in this series, I have to commend Abbi on giving the secondary characters of this story such dimension.  They weren't just names, she gave those names a personality, she made me want to dig a little deeper into some of them.  Take a chance on Until Friday Night, it's a really great read in what I predict to be another bestselling Abbi Glines series!