Review: Not Too "Peppy"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 7, 2013
I am a sucker for a good mature YA, and always grab any free ones I find on Amazon. “Pepped Up” was a freebie a couple of months ago, lucky for me, because I really, really enjoyed this book.This story is about Pepper Jones, who lives with her Gran and runs cross country for her high school. She is going into her junior year of high school, and hoping to reach Nationals for her school’s cross-country team, beating her personal achievements from the year prior. She competes in these races, but mostly she is trying to outdo herself. I loved that about her character, and felt bad for her when unwanted attention to her running career had her worrying about other people’s expectations. I loved the running scenes though, they were almost enough to make me wanna lace up my Nike’s and hit the pavement. Almost.“I want to capture the exhilaration and peace flowing through my veins, pulsing through my soul. Who needs a vice when you can attain an utter sense of being alive with such simple ingredients?”—PepperIn the beginning of the story, Jace—Pepper’s best friend— has just returned from two weeks away at football camp in Texas. They had been best friends and neighbors since they were practically toddlers. Gran took Pepper in after her parents died, and basically raised Jace as well, since his own mother left just after he turned four.Given all of that, you would expect them to be attached at the hip, but apart from randomly spending some of their free time together, and him driving her to and from school, they barely interact. Being the quarterback of the football team, he is king of the school and spends his time partying and chasing girls.And poor Pepper has never even really had a boyfriend, doesn’t go to parties, or run with his crowd at all. She has her teammates and her Gran, and Jace, whenever he makes time for her. She wants more from him than friendship, but is of course too afraid to say so. You could definitely feel the tension between them, increasingly more so as their relationship became strained, in part due to his ‘extracurricular activities’ as well as her burgeoning friendship with Ryan. Ryan is a transplant from another school that also runs cross-country, and it quickly becomes apparent the he and Pepper are very compatible.Overall, I would give “Pepped Up” 4.5 stars. It had a bit of everything, from sweet innocence to implied debauchery, and I loved every minute of it. My heart broke for Pepper as she realized a few things about her self, and her relationships, and I wanted to smack Jace in the head more than once. This is the first in a series, and though it’s not a cliffhanger, you will definitely be left wanting book two as soon as possible.Reviewed by Lea and posted on Lives and Breathes Book Blog@ [...]