The Crush
by Allyson Kennedy
Series: Ballad of Emery Brooks #1
Series Rating:
Published by Allyson Kennedy on October 24, 2020
Genres: YA Sweet Romance
Pages: 280
Format: Kindle
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Never settle for anything less.
A combination hopeless romantic and old soul trapped in a teenager’s body, closet musician Emery Brooks wonders if she’ll ever find a love as timeless as her grandparents’. Fear of judgment and social alienation due to her older brother’s past mistakes render her incapable of writing a love song. Still, Emery holds fast to the ideals her Grandma Adeline instilled in her from a young age, vowing to allow God to handwrite her love story, to never settle for anything less.
That is, until love cynic Sawyer Alston enters her world. Broken by the wrath of his parents’ failed marriage, Sawyer has been uprooted from everything he’s ever known and now sees love as a void of empty promises. When Emery and Sawyer meet due to their mothers' rekindled friendship, Emery soon realizes she’s in over her head.
For, despite her resistance, her first crush, her first glimpse at love, involves a boy who doesn’t believe in love at all.
The Crush by Allyson Kennedy is about two people falling in love and believing in God.
Does Emery find her forever man like her grandma Adeline did?
Emery Brooks
We follow Emery Brooks from her last few days as an eighth-grader to going to high school. Emery isn’t just a normal fourteen-year-old girl as she idolized her grandparents’ love for each other. So much happens for Emery, from when we first start her book to the very end when she’s sixteen. Emery is a good character, even if it’s a bit weird that she wants to find her soulmate at the tender age of fourteen. She is a musically inclined character that loves to play the guitar. Emery is an old soul that lives in a young body, and it shows especially in the way that she dresses at times. She does have major character growth from being a wimpy kid initially to stand up to people who aren’t all that nice, which is great to see.
What I like about Emery is that she knows when to pick her battles. Another thing that I like about her is that when she falls for someone, she falls hard.
Sawyer Alston
All we know about Sawyer is what we know through Emery’s eyes. Sawyer seems like a great kid, but he has lots of emotional baggage that he has to carry. He is going through so much and has the help of Emery and her family to help him through it since his own family doesn’t care. Sawyer loves music just as much as Emery does and is a great songwriter. I wish that the author was nice to this poor soul.
Four Stars
The Crush by Allyson Kennedy is a great read that involves lots of talk about God and how high schoolers act, especially when they feel that they aren’t being treated the way they want. Sawyer and Emery have a great love story in the making. I won’t tell you about the end although it is why I only gave it four stars. I am still recommending it, though, as it was greatly written.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Crush by Allyson Kennedy.
Until the next time,
Happy Reading!
About Allyson Kennedy
Allyson Kennedy is a southern contemporary YA author whose goal is to write realistic, thought-provoking books that honor God while not sugarcoating the realities of the world. When she’s not putting pen to paper, she can often be found with her nose in a book, watching movies for “storytelling research”, or hanging out at bowling alleys across eastern North Carolina.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2021 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
- 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge
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