My rating: 4 of 5 stars
To nineteen-year-old high school dropout Travis Walker, women are like snowflakes--each one different, but beautiful in her own way.
He can charm any girl he meets, and yet down deep he fears he'll always be a loser like his jailbird father. As the landlady threatens to evict him and his sick mother, Travis takes a job he hates and spends his evenings picking up girls at a nearby night spot.
When he enlists in a teen program at the local fire station, he finds out he’s amazing at it. Then he meets the smoking hot Kat Summers, enlists Kat’s friend Zoey to help him woo her, and falls in love for the first time ever.
But he keeps the details of his life secret. His girl will never love him back if she knows the truth about him…
He can charm any girl he meets, and yet down deep he fears he'll always be a loser like his jailbird father. As the landlady threatens to evict him and his sick mother, Travis takes a job he hates and spends his evenings picking up girls at a nearby night spot.
When he enlists in a teen program at the local fire station, he finds out he’s amazing at it. Then he meets the smoking hot Kat Summers, enlists Kat’s friend Zoey to help him woo her, and falls in love for the first time ever.
But he keeps the details of his life secret. His girl will never love him back if she knows the truth about him…
Excerpt
Only fifteen minutes since I’d entered the halls of Perdido High School and already the beady eye of authority was upon me. I hadn’t even done anything wrong.
Yet.
“Travis!” Ms. Valenzuela called out to me from the door of the guidance office. Although she was getting old, maybe into her early forties, she hadn’t let herself go. She had great legs, which were hidden today by her lime green pants.
“Yo.” I loped over and unleashed a grin that combined sincere remorse for my failings with my irresistible charm.
She pursed her lips. “Don’t start with me, Travis.”
I led the way to her office and took my usual chair while she sat at the desk across from me. “New picture,” I said, nodding to the updated photo of her two daughters. “Kelsi and … Julianne, right?”
She struggled to keep back a smile. “Yes, Travis. Those are their names.”
“Fifth and seventh grade, right?”
“Yes, Travis.” Now she was smiling for sure.
Maybe it was my blue-green eyes, or maybe my granite abs, but I could always get women to smile at me.
Ms. Valenzuela opened my folder. “Six more absences since your last visit to my office. Plus numerous missed homework assignments. You’re this close to suspension.” She held up her thumb and index finger a millimeter apart.
“I have to work, Ms. Val,” I said. “Gotta get ahead, you know.” I had a promising position as a bus boy at Jake’s Burgers.
“How many hours are you working these days?”
“As many as I can get, whenever I can get ‘em.”
“You can’t cut back?” She knew she couldn’t push me that hard. My family’s sudden move to Los Angeles in November of my junior year, coupled with my erratic attendance at Perdido High, had screwed up my graduation credits. With all my former classmates in college, I was starting my senior year, again, at age nineteen.
“I can’t get weekend shifts at Jake’s,” I told Ms.Val.
She didn’t like me working there, but she should just be glad I wasn’t following in the path of my father, who knocked over a convenience mart a year ago and ended up in prison for armed robbery. Mom had gone to visit him, but I refused. He could rot there for all I cared.
“You’ve got one school year left to graduate. I want to see you get that high school diploma, Travis. Or a GED at least.” Between her fingers, she rolled a pen. It was the cheap kind the school district bought that wrote for about five minutes before it crapped out on you.
“Yeah, well, we’re about to get evicted,” I said, “so that’s kind of rearranged my priorities.”
Author Bio:
Anne Pfeffer is the author of Any Other Night and The Wedding Cake Girl. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.
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Twitter @AnnePfeffer1
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Jen's Review -
I love Anne Pfeffer! The Wedding Cake Girl was great - and this book .....
Wow! This book just seems to really grasp you -
Makes me think though - I've seen a lot of homeless people that aren't even really homeless. Just out on the streets looking for a free handout -
It's hard to tell who really needs the help, and who is just too lazy to get it -
I think I've lost track on how many times I've handed change over to someone and later learn from the news that they weren't who I thought they were.
Travis is down on his luck - he's only 19 years old , the poor guy couldn't even graduate with his class because he had too many absences from having to work extra hours - But his senior year, again - things got worse.
With is dad in prison, his mom sick - they're about to lose their apartment.
His guidance counselor tries to help him out. She sets him up with her brother in law doing heavy labor work -
Travis LOVES the feel of heavy labor works. So when he meets with his new boss, he lets him know he's there full time, not part time -
The land lady keeps on Travis for being late on rent. he hands over his paycheck each Friday, but it's still not enough to get them caught up.
Travis heads over to the local community center in search of a shower on his lunch break. There he meets Kat - wow! Beautiful Kat . lol
He doesn't get the job, but he still goes back the next day looking for Kat. She's not there. But her friend Zoey is there. He leaves a note with Zoey to give to Kat for him.
He gets the brush off from Kat - but Travis still thinks he's in the game. Going back to the center one more time, he leaves another message for Kat with Zoey.
Zoey becomes annoyed, but lets Kat know Travis stopped by.
After a few days, Travis gets a call from Zoey. She's in charge at the community Center helping out in the Lunch area. They need a strong guy to come help them out at lunch time. Since Travis has 4 hours for his lunch break and the free food for him and his mom would help save money for rent. He takes the job.
Travis swears he'll never become one of those homeless people, the ones that need that much help.
But things just keep getting worse and worse for Travis - He tries his hardest, but it's just not enough.
I really enjoyed reading about Travis at the fire station. That was really interesting, and HARD work! Gives you more to appreciate those men and women out there to help us.
This book was hard and emotional, but not too much. Travis wouldn't let you get too emotional for him. He's a strong guy determined to do things the right way, and doing them himself. He doesn't want hand outs, he doesn't want people to feel sorry for him. He just wants to survive, and get his mother healthy again.
Great story! Very different from other's I've read :)
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