Thanks a Lot, John LeClair Volume 2 (Here's to You, Zeb Pike, #2)

by Johanna Parkhurst

A Companion to Here's to You, Zeb Pike On the surface, life looks pretty good for sixteen-year-old Emmitt LaPoint: he's popular, doing well in school, and he's poised to lead his small-town Vermont hockey team all the way to the state championship—and that'll lead to attention from scouts. Emmitt might manage to follow in the footsteps of his hockey hero, John LeClair, who he's been secretly writing to for years. But beneath the perfect façade, Emmitt is struggling. All he wants is to hold on to the two things he loves: hockey and his boyfriend, Dusty. But Emmitt's absentee father has recently returned to breathe down his neck, and not everyone is eager to see him succeed. Few people in town know Emmitt is gay, and it's getting harder to stay in the closet. On top of everything, Dusty seems to be hiding his own secrets.

• ISBN10: 1634774280
• ISBN13: 9781634774284
• Publish Date: 15 December 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dreamspinner Press
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 204
• Language: English

Reviews

[Chelsea]

** I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This impacts my review in no way at all. **

Actual rating: 4.5 stars rounded up to 5

What I Loved

The best part about this book was the overall feeling. The feelings of being a teenager and not knowing what do to with your life but also the feelings of knowing exactly what you want to do but not knowing if you'll get there. This book talks about hope and dreams with the added mixture of family drama that nobody can escape from. If was a very realistically written book and it almost made me feeling like I was 16 again.

Even though there was such a mixture of emotions, this was actually a happy book. It made me feel good about myself and I felt happy for these characters in the end. They went through a dramatic growth period and ended up better after it. That's something we tend to see a lack of in YA books right now.

It's hard to describe the plot because there wasn't really anything exciting about it. It just was. Things happened that made you worry for our main character. Was he going to get in trouble, is he going to be ok, but nothing like the action of a fantasy or thriller. Yet somehow the author kept me hooked. I think it was the characters that glued me to the pages of this story, keeping my eyes stuck until the very last page.

What I Didn't Love

I feel like it was so close to a five stars for me. There was just a little something missing (probably the fact that my preferred genre is fantasy and I'm used to action) and that kept me from the full five stars. That's ok though! The only difference (for me) between four and five stars is personal preference. That said, there wasn't anything I didn't love about this book.

Who I'd Recommend To

I’d recommend this to those who are on the hunt for diverse reads (an LGBT relationship is seen during this whole story). I think the author did a great job at keeping this relationship an important part of the story while also not making a big deal about it. (I'm hoping that made as much sense as it did in my brain.) I also think a lot of contemporary lovers will really enjoy this one, especially those who are currently in their teenage years.