One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.
And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?
Hasn’t everyone wondered what if? In this daring debut novel, Moriah McStay gives us the rare opportunity to see what might have happened if things were different. Maybe luck determines our paths. But maybe it’s who we are that determines our luck.
This is tough. I always try to find positive things in a novel, and though this book had strengths, I was disappointed. The way this book was arranged–like two parallel universes with the same characters taking on different roles–really confused me.
Whatever good might have come from Fiona overcoming her traumatic past, or the sympathy I feel for her counterpart Fi later on–it all seems kind of washed out when I have to constantly stop reading to make sure I’m following the right version of the character.
Maybe if I read every other chapter so that I’m reading each version of her successively as one story, I’ll like it better. But that’s not how this book was arranged, not how it was meant to be read…and how it was meant to be read just didn’t sit well for me. Looking through Goodreads I find I’m not the only one who felt this way.
Two stars because the idea was promising but could have been handled better.
Mariella Hunt 