Trust, by Kylie Scott [ARC]|Book Review #229

I received Trust, by Kylie Scott from Kylie Scott via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

After being held hostage during a robbery at the local convenience store, seventeen-year-old Edie finds her attitude about life shattered. Unwilling to put up with the snobbery and bullying at her private school, she enrolls at the local public high school, crossing paths with John. The boy who risked his life to save hers.

While Edie’s beginning to run wild, however, John’s just starting to settle down. After years of partying and dealing drugs with his older brother, he’s going straight—getting to class on time, and thinking about the future.

An unlikely bond grows between the two as John keeps Edie out of trouble and helps her broaden her horizons. But when he helps her out with another first—losing her virginity—their friendship gets complicated.

Meanwhile, Edie and John are pulled back into the dangerous world they narrowly escaped. They were lucky to survive the first time, but this time they have more to lose—each other.

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Trigger Warning: Gun Violence, Gun Violence resulting in Death, Blood, and Explicit Sex Scenes.

I’ve read Kylie Scott’s more adult novels so when I had read that Scott was going to be publishing a Young Adult novel, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a copy. I am honestly so amazed, and glad that I got an ARC copy. I dove into Trust not really knowing what to expect, but still expecting a certain…Kylie Scott feel, and I was definitely met by it!

I enjoyed how the story got underway pretty quickly — aka, the action pretty much started a few pages in, and that my friends, is what I like! Once I started reading Trust, I could barely stop. I was sucked into reading and didn’t stop until I practically finished. Trust is an incredibly fast read; especially as an e-copy. The writing and the story moves very well; and the pace of the book is spot on.

I love John and Edie’s characters. In fact, I love all the characters. They’re all completely realistic. I loved that there was a girl x girl couple, but didn’t like the fact that they weren’t more prominent in the story; they’re background characters honestly. I really loved the fact that Edie’s best friend, Hang, is a poc, but she’s a secondary character as well.

I get though, that the main point of this book is Edie’s and John’s relationship.

Edie goes through a lot in this book. I mean, that was needless to say, but she truly does go through so much in just a year. We see Edie grow as a character and learn to stand up to bullies; which I loved reading about by the way. We also see Edie make some painful choices, and some not-so-painful choices.

I really, really like that on various occasions throughout the novel, Edie mentions her body type: slightly taller, and a little chubby, with thunder thighs. This goes without saying: Edie does have some body image issues but nearing the end of the novel she works on accepting herself for who she is. All in all though, Edie is one badass character.

‘And God forgive  me for noticing such details in a place like this. I was headed straight to hell’s barbecue, and that was the truth.’

Moving onto Johns character… I’ve got to admit that the synopsis is entirely misleading. To me the synopsis sounds like John has a point of view in this book as well, but he doesn’t. Which I found to be a little upsetting since I would have really enjoyed reading from John’s view on things. — However, John is an all around great guy. After the shooting took place, he cleaned himself up, and was no longer doing illegal things. He really turned his life around.

I also really loved that there’s a playlist that belongs to the story as well!! The playlist that’s listed at the beginning of the book was a completely unexpected surprise.

I ended up giving Trust 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads. Trust is seriously one of the better books I’ve read in a while. No joke.

A huge Thank-You to Netgalley, and Kylie Scott for allowing me to read Trust!

Happy Reading!
Adele