Review: Bad Boy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 1, 2013
McKenzie Walsh is a beautiful young woman, working with her Dad in his lawn care business, hoping to take over when her father decides to retire.  She loves the work, and has great ideas for the company.  She has a best friend, Julie, and a pretty non-existent social life. There is a reason for that. When she was fifteen, starting a new school she became the target of merciless bullying. It began when she was helping her dad at the home of a well to do family with a son she went to school with, West Diaz, whom she had a serious crush on. West was a jock superstar soccer player, and seeing her mowing the lawn started calling her "lawn girl" at school to get her to pay attention to him. The teasing went very wrong. His "crew" was always calling out insults, and actually throwing grass and clumps of dirt at her.  The worst was when his girlfriend confronted her in the ladies room, had other girls hold her down and cut off a chunk of her hair.  McKenzie was saved by the arrival of a teacher.  She was frightened, humiliated, and close to despair.  "One of the worst parts of being bullied is feeling ashamed, like it was your fault, like you'd done something to make another person do this to you."Two years have gone by, and West Diaz is home for Christmas, and has one goal. It's to try and make McKenzie forgive him for making her life a living hell in high school. He is going to Georgetown University,  where  a bullying incident ended in tragedy, and he can't live with the pain and guilt he feels for what he had done to Mckenzie.This is an up close and personal look at the heartless act of bullying.  McKenzie is a very strong girl/woman who is determined to survive, never even telling her Dad of her misery.  West Diaz is a privileged athlete, with a wealthy family, who takes teasing to another level, and watches it get completely out of hand, ultimately giving her the worst betrayal of all.I enjoyed this novel very much.  It was hard to read at times, but I felt so much pride for McKenzie and her fight to put this dark part of her life behind her.  I was not sympathetic to West, and I wanted to give him a good shake a few times.  Ms. Valentine's characters are always very intriguing, and stir up lots of emotions.I recommend this book, it's a very enjoyable read, and gave me a new look at the tragedy that can effect our young children.  It has to be stopped.I received this novel from the author for an honest review.Pat Fordyce