The Lovely Reckless

by Kami Garcia

Seventeen-year-old Frankie Devereux would do anything to forget the past. Haunted by the memory of her boyfriend&#x;s death, she lives her life by one dangerous rule: nothing matters. Then a reckless mistake forces her to leave her privileged life in the Heights to move in with her dad, an undercover cop. She transfers to public school in the Downs, where fistfights in the halls don&#x;t faze anyone and illegal street racing is more popular than football. Marco Leone is the fastest street racer in the Downs. Tough, sexy, and hypnotic, he makes it impossible for Frankie to ignore him. But the risks Marco takes for his family could have devastating consequences for them both. When Frankie discovers his secret, she has to make a choice. Will she let the pain of the past determine her future? Or will she risk what little she has left to follow her heart?

• ISBN10: 1250079195
• ISBN13: 9781250079190
• Publish Date: 4 October 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 26 January 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Imprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[liz089]

I liked reading this book.. though I did not find it very original. It reminded me a lot of other books in this genre, like the Perfect Chemistry series by Simone Elkeles and the Pushing the Limits series by Katie McGarry.
This book has its own twist to it, with the memory loss and PTSD, but the whole class difference in town and Shop in class.. car races.. It all reminded me too much of those I mentioned above.

The main characters were okay.. They were likeable enough, even though I wanted to shake Franky from time to time. She made some weird and stupid choices that made no sense at all.. She was so lucky things did not end up worse because of some choices. I did like how she wanted to add more by giving some of the side characters more depth (like Lex, Cruz and Abel) but all in all they were nothing special.. just kind of generic.

The romance was okay as well.. I liked their chemistry, but I thought they went way too soon over to the whole LOVE thing. They are 17/18 years old !! What do you know of the forever kind of love at that age !?! They barely know each other !

So all in all this book was okay. Not special, but well.. like a lot of other books in this genre. Though it does made me want to read Perfect Chem again haha ^^

[whisperingchapters]

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.


Frankie has started to spiral out of control. She has PTSD from when her boyfriend was murdered right before her eyes. She's the only witness but she can't remember much of what happened. The girl with 4.0 GPA, always happy and friendly, who never got into trouble and wanted to go to Stanford is now getting drunk, not caring which college she goes to, and ignoring all her friends. One night and a mistake later land her with her father, an undercover cop in the ugly side of town, Downs. It is at her new school where she meets Marco, a tattooed street racer. She's been pushing the boundaries lately, stepping out of the norm of what she would normally do, and Marco will be one of them.

Before Noah died, I never took risks. I was afraid of disappointing someone or screwing up the Plan. Now I've disappointed everyone. There's no Plan and no Noah, and I'm still afraid.

I felt so much sympathy for Frankie. She's dealing with so much: PTSD, trying to piece together the night of the murder, moving to a new school, adjusting to a new "life". It hurts her to think of the past, how her life used to be, so she distances herself from her best friend. I didn't agree with this decision since Lex is the best friend anyone could ever ask for and both girls needed one another. I loved how tough Frankie truly is and her development. Along the way she had to take risks in order to save those she loved and I was loving her fierceness.

If there is a god, please don't let this guy sit next to me.
My mouth goes dry as he approaches. Marco drops into the vinyl chair across from mine, which is worse than if he sat next to me, because now I have nowhere to look except him.
Apparently, God is alive and well, and he has a sense of humor.

Can we talk about Marco now? Let's talk about Marco. Gosh, where do I even start?! As soon as Marco was introduced and he smiled, I swooned. He has this bad boy vibe to him but there's so much more to him! My heart was so torn for him and I just wanted to wrap him up in a blanket and then hug him tight. He went through so much as a child and now he's taking care of his little sister, Sophia. Life hasn't been easy for him and he has had to do things he never wanted to do. But he will do anything to keep Sophia safe, even if it means putting himself in danger. His relationship with Frankie turned out to be so cute and kind of sexy! The kisses were very steamy! It was kind of insta-lovey and I was ready to protest, but I couldn't help but love them together!

“Marco will fight for his sister, for his friends, and I’m willing to bet he'd fight to the ends of the earth for you. But he won’t fight for himself. He only sees one door, Frankie. He needs someone to show him the other ones.”

Frankie built a lot of friendships and I was so happy to see these friends standing by her side. Lex and Cruz are at the top of the list. They are great friends that I'd love to have! Both are bold, eccentric, outgoing, a little reckless, and fierce. So yes, I totally want them as my best friends. They stood by Frankie's side, especially Lex. Frankie and Lex used to be friends before Noah's death. After that, Frankie pushed her away and it hurt Lex a lot. I'm glad that Frankie was able to reconnect with her.

I need to talk about my feelings here. Guys, my heart broke so much while reading. I can't go into detail, but I will say prepare yourself. I was not expecting to feel so much, to the point of having tears in my eyes, for this story. But I did. It was so heart-breaking at times and I didn't know how to deal with this! It ended up being very beautiful, though. It was totally worth the heart-breaking moments.

I actually wish this story had more racing and more cars. I've only read ONE other book that's YA, has humor yet it's somewhat dark, and it involves racing and it's a book on Wattpad. I've re-read that book so many times over the years. When I found about The Lovely Reckless would have a similar approach, I knew I had to read it. I'm so happy Kami Garcia took the plunge and wrote this story since it really is great. Now, I'll be hoping that she writes another story with these characters, but maybe another couple :D

Overall, The Lovely Reckless is a thrilling fast-paced and heartfelt contemporary with a cute and sexy romance that readers will adore!

I received an eARC from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.

[Sam@WLABB]

When I saw that Kami Garcia was releasing a contemporary romance, I knew I had to read it. I wanted to see how she would do contemporary, and I loved it! This story hooked me right from the beginning, and just got better and better with each page.

We have a once good girl, who is trying to find herself again after seeing her boyfriend brutally murdered. We have a bad boy, with a good heart, who is just trying to protect the people he loves. We also kind of have a whole Romeo and Juliet thing going on (I would love to share my thoughts, but I don't want to give away any plot points here) when they get together.

Frankie is suffering from PTSD and struggling with who she is. She knows she is not the Frankie from before, but she is still trying to figure out who she is now. She finds a kindred spirit in Marco. He is also a little broken, and but unlike the rest of her friends and family, he is not trying to fix her. Garcia did such a good job of creating the softer side of Marco. He totally won my heart with his pretty words and sweet gestures.

"I don't want to fix you, Angel. I just want you."
"There's nothing disappointing about you, Frankie."
"Sometimes scars make people stronger."

Frankie is still experiencing flashbacks of that night, as she tries to piece together what happened in an attempt to catch Noah's murder. She cannot sleep, has avoided her best friends, and abandoned all her activities. She has lost all hope, until Marco.

"I feel it every time we're together now - possibility."

There is a lot of drama that threatens to keep Marco and Frankie apart. I cannot lie, I got really emotional during those parts.

"'But I just found you. I don't want to love you.' My heart stalls. 'I don't want to get lost.'"

This book is filled with so many wounded characters, but the beauty is in the permission Garcia gives them to hurt, and how she lets them heal.

If you like gritty contemporary romances with a little bit of mystery, you will enjoy this book.