Release Date: October 26, 2018
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Being a bully isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Sixteen-year old Brianna had everything she wanted: money to ski all over the world, underlings to do her bidding, and parents who gave her every freedom—as long as she played by their rules. But when she’s busted shoplifting and assigned to the Chain Gang, she ditches her shallow ways and realizes being herself is easier than manipulating people.
Forced to partner with kids she’d never dream of befriending, including Xavier, a boy who makes her pulse go into hyperdrive, Brianna vows to be a better person. Breaking Old Brianna’s habits isn’t easy, but her infatuation with Xavier—someone her parents would never approve of—motivates her to keep trying.
Even when he convinces her to trade her swanky skis for a beat-up snowboard.
Brianna lets go of her need to control everything and finally starts to feel free—until her past threatens to jeopardize her first real chance at love. She discovers balancing on the edge is as challenging in life as it is in snowboarding, and when a new friend is in trouble, Brianna must decide between the superficial things that used to be her world and putting her friend’s safety before herself.
I love YA sport romances, and The Rules series has actually been in my TBR for a while. Even though I haven’t read the first two novels, I’m excited to be a part of the blog tour for the third novel, The Edge Rules!
Brianna was the mean girl everyone in school was afraid of before she fell from her queen bee status. I haven’t read the two previous books in the series, but I believe Brianna was the antagonist to the main characters in those books. The Edge Rules begins after Brianna has already lost all of her friends and her popular status at school. Spiraling from what’s happened, she’s turned to shoplifting…until she’s arrested. Things go from bad to worse when she finds out her parents are divorcing that same night. Brianna’s sentenced to community service, which she fulfills through picking up trash on the side of the road. Through this, she meets a whole cast of characters she would not be caught dead socializing with in her past life and realizes they aren’t so terrible as she might have once thought.
It’s not often that I read a book where the main character is the mean girl, and I really enjoyed this aspect. I loved watching Brianna grow from her mean girl persona into a better person and actually learn from her mistakes and past. I think if I had read the other two books I could appreciate this growth even more. While it’s not required to read the other books, I would recommend doing so in order to understand the whole picture. I plan to go read the other books soon and then do a reread of this one.
I loved seeing Brianna interact with the different members of the clean up crew as she got to know them better and as she herself started to change. Even though everyone comes from different backgrounds, they all share a lot of similarities, which Brianna comes to realize as she forms real friendships. I also loved seeing Brianna’s relationship with Xavier develop, especially when he teaches her how to snowboard!
Overall, I really enjoyed The Edge Rules and I look forward to reading the rest of the series!
My Rating:
*This ARC was provided to me by the publisher through Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours in exchange for a honest review.*
About Melanie
Multi-award winning young adult author Melanie Hooyenga first started writing as a teenager and finds she still relates best to that age group. She has lived in Washington DC, Chicago, and Mexico, but has finally settled down in her home state of Michigan. When not at her day job as a Communications Director at a nonprofit, you can find Melanie attempting to wrangle her Miniature Schnauzer Owen and playing every sport imaginable with her husband Jeremy.
