Review: I Never by Laura Hopper

I Never by Laura Hopper

Series: N/A

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Release Date: November 7, 2017

Format: eBook

Source: Axis 360

Find it here: GoodReads | Amazon

Janey King’s priorities used to be clear: track, school, friends, and family. But when seventeen-year-old Janey learns that her seemingly happy parents are getting divorced, her world starts to shift. Back at school, Luke Hallstrom, an adorable senior, pursues Janey, and she realizes that she has two new priorities to consider: love and sex.

Inspired by Judy Blume’s classic Forever, I Never features a perfect, delicious, almost-to-good-to-be-true high school relationship . . . and it doesn’t shy away from the details. Destined to be passed from teen to teen, this is a young adult debut that will get readers talking.

With the strong comparisons to Judy Blume's Forever, which I remember well from my own adolescence, I was curious what I Never would bring to the table. Hopper does a credible job in exploring all the firsts that come with first love while neither condoning nor judging.

Janey is a high school junior who is a good student, good athlete, has strong friendships and close relationships with her parents. When her parents announce their separation and a new romance develops with a popular boy at school, everything in Janey's life seems to be shifting. When some of her friends aren't particularly supportive of her new relationship, Janey struggles to find her footing while she navigates unfamiliar territory.

"Just as one part of my life starts to flourish, everything else goes down the toilet. 

First, my mom is clearly worried that her angelic daughter is being corrupted. 

Then Brett gets pissed at me for being secretive. 

And now Sloan tells me I'm a shitty friend. 

Have I really done so much wrong? 

Am I supposed to stay away from Luke to maintain 

the status quo and make other people happy?"

Janey is surprised that falling in love doesn't necessarily make everything fall into place. She's plagued with insecurities - about her body, about her lack of experience, about Luke's interactions with other girls. While first love is heady and thrilling, it also brings its own set of new problems. Hopper did an admirable job of showcasing this and showed Janey wrestling with both the excitement of her new relationship with Luke and all the changes that came with it.

Janey's relationship with her parents was a real highlight. I appreciated the openness between she and her mother in particular and their willingness to talk even when they weren't seeing eye to eye. The mother's need to protect her daughter and Janey's push for privacy and independence felt totally realistic. 

"I've heard parents and teachers refer to the years from puberty to adulthood 

as the formative years. I suppose that means it's a transitional period 

that shapes the kind of adults we turn out to be. 

If that's the case, then we all need to give one another a break. 

We're going to change and grow and make mistakes. 

We're going to reinvent ourselves."

Hopper covered all the highs and lows of teenage first love: butterflies, exhilaration, hormones gone wild, angst and heartbreak. While main characters Janey and Luke sometimes felt a little flat, they were still likable and it was easy to be charmed by the bittersweet nature of first love. 

3.5/5 STARS