Looking for a page-turner while you’re social distancing? Our Driftwood staff provides some of our favorite light reading picks to pass the time while cooped up at home.
Fiction:
Pushing the Limits Series
by Katie McGarry
Dysfunctional home lives and chance foster care placements brought Kentucky teens Noah, Isaiah, and Beth together; they’ve forged a bond so tight that they’ve become family. On the outside, the members of this trio are tough, independent, battle-tested teenagers…yet, what they hide from the rest of the world is how broken they really are—haunted by heartbreaking and dangerous demons, both past and present. These YA romance books by Katie McGarry have been some of my all-time favorites for many years! If they sound like they’re up your alley, you can read them either in order as a series or as standalones.- Book #1: Pushing the Limits: Noah Hutchins used to be the golden boy, but after losing his parents in a house fire, being separated from his two young brothers, and bouncing around the foster care system, the perfect existence he once had is nothing more than a distant memory. Echo Emerson’s idyllic life ceased to exist once her beloved older brother died in Afghanistan, her parents’ marriage fell apart, and one of her mother’s bipolar episodes nearly resulted in her killing her own daughter. The school’s “Bad Boy” and “Miss Popular” are an unlikely team, but in order for Noah to get custody of his siblings and for Echo to unravel the mystery of what happened on that fateful night she nearly died, they must work together…and maybe they’ll even fall in love along the way.
- Book #2: Dare You To: Growing up in a trailer park with her father in prison and a drug-addicted alcoholic as a mother, Beth Risk’s life has been the furthest thing from easy. Then, at the beginning of her senior year, she’s forced to transfer schools and move in with her rich, estranged uncle and his snide wife. Ryan Stone appears to have it all—money, good looks, and a real talent for playing baseball—but his family has lots of secrets, and they aren’t as perfect as everyone thinks. Although Ryan and Beth initially can’t stand each other, what begins as a simple dare slowly morphs into an improbable friendship and, eventually, a burning attraction neither can ignore. But when Beth’s troublesome past continues to plague the new, happy life she’s built, she and Ryan will have to find out if love can truly conquer all.
- Book #3: Crash Into You: With his tattoos, piercings, and don’t-mess-with-me-or-else attitude, Isaiah Walker looks the part of the parentless foster care kid who grew up on the streets. Rachel Young is a beautiful heiress, and everything her older sister isn’t: painfully shy, a tomboy, but most importantly, still alive. All Rachel’s parents and four big brothers want is for her to make speeches on Colleen’s behalf about curing cancer, and she agrees…even if it means hiding the severe panic attacks that occur as a result. A shared passion for fast cars and street racing leads to a brief encounter between Isaiah and Rachel, but what happens that night puts both their lives in jeopardy, and the pair has just six weeks to come up with a way to pay off a dangerous, maniacal street thug seeking revenge. Will this star-crossed love affair between the “perfect” girl and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks end in tragedy or happily ever after?
—Mallory Allen
Then She Was Gone
by Lisa Jewell
Ten years ago, Laurel’s golden child, Ellie, mysteriously disappeared without a trace. The police came to the conclusion that Ellie simply ran away, but Laurel thought differently—and she still does even a decade later. When Laurel starts dating the charming Floyd, she thinks she might be able to finally move on from her daughter’s disappearance. But then she meets Floyd’s daughter, Polly, who looks startling like her precious Ellie, and Laurel wonders if there is more to Ellie’s disappearance to uncover. I’ve reread this book several times, and it remains one of my favorites still. Lisa Jewell writes the “disappearance-with-a-twist” trope well, without being cliché or too predictable. One of the things I love best about this book is that it’s clear what happened to Ellie, but the circumstances surrounding her disappearance are not. If you’re a fan of Gone Girl, I can’t recommend this book enough!
by Lisa Jewell
Ten years ago, Laurel’s golden child, Ellie, mysteriously disappeared without a trace. The police came to the conclusion that Ellie simply ran away, but Laurel thought differently—and she still does even a decade later. When Laurel starts dating the charming Floyd, she thinks she might be able to finally move on from her daughter’s disappearance. But then she meets Floyd’s daughter, Polly, who looks startling like her precious Ellie, and Laurel wonders if there is more to Ellie’s disappearance to uncover. I’ve reread this book several times, and it remains one of my favorites still. Lisa Jewell writes the “disappearance-with-a-twist” trope well, without being cliché or too predictable. One of the things I love best about this book is that it’s clear what happened to Ellie, but the circumstances surrounding her disappearance are not. If you’re a fan of Gone Girl, I can’t recommend this book enough!
—Olivia Meyer, Books Editor