PRE-RELEASE REVIEW: 'The Weekend Bucket List' by Mia Kerick
Title: The Weekend Bucket List
Author: Mia Kerick
Release Date: April 19, 2018
Publisher: Duet Books - Imprint of Interlude Press
Genre: Young Adult; Non-Explicit
Length: 226 Pages
Tags: Bisexual; Comfort/Hurt; Coming of Age; Family Drama; HEA; Second Chance; Tattoos/Piercings
About The Weekend Bucket List
High school seniors Cady LaBrie and Cooper Murphy have yet to set one toe out of line they've never stayed out all night or snuck into a movie, never gotten drunk or gone skinny-dipping. But they have each other, forty-eight hours before graduation, and a Weekend Bucket List.
There's a lot riding on this one weekend, especially since Cady and Cooper have yet to admit, much less resolve, their confounding feelings for one another feelings that prove even more difficult to discern when genial high school dropout Eli Stanley joins their epic adventure. But as the trio ticks through their bucket list, the questions they face shift toward something new: Must friendship play second fiddle to romance? Or can it be the ultimate prize?
5 HEART READ
REVIEW:
Mia Kerick’s The Weekend Bucket List was so good, I plan to give it to a teenager struggling with her identity. I think the young lady will enjoy it, and possibly have a change of perspective. While Kerick spins a captivating tale of three youth, she powerfully explores themes of sexuality, peer-pressure, self-respect, finances, education, and parental pressure; the daily struggle for many on the cusp of adulthood.
Everyone, including Cooper, has presumed he’s gay. His best female friend, Cady, was even permitted sleep-overs. Unlike Cady’s twin brother who is in drug rehab, she’s been a terrific influence. The two teens have excelled - to the exclusion of normal teen-aged activities.
In the weekend before their high school graduation, however, they’ve created a bucket list of the things they missed. Each hopes the tasks will determine whether their growing, unacknowledged attraction is real romance. Instead, they run into Eli, a beautiful boy, barely older than they, who has worked at a carnival for the past year, escaping his abusive father.
Faced with this desperate, yet wise young man, Cooper and Cady must rethink all their presumptions, acknowledge their demons, and truly mature. Can they do so, or will they also abandon Eli?
Mia Kerick’s The Weekend Bucket List was so good, I plan to give it to a teenager struggling with her identity.
Without coming across as preachy, Kerick pens a cautionary tale about the wisest roles for alcohol, sexual exploration, and romance. In so doing, she creates the special friendships we all wish we’d enjoyed.
Kerick has a gift for expressing the teen’s acute awareness of potential conflict. For example, when Cooper is trying to come to terms with the change in his relationship with Cady, he thinks to himself, “If I had to label the look in Cady’s eyes, I’d call it “morning has broken”-like something truly amazing was dawning on her. I’d also describe her expression as conflicted. And it scared me… but it was still so compelling. I didn’t look away for just a second too long. In that split second, everything changed.”
I laughed as Kerick captured the kids’ overly dramatic rationalizations to a “T,” like when Cady thinks to herself, “So maybe I’m officially moping. Teenagers are hormonal; we’re supposed to mope around our houses, aren’t we? It’s not against the law. There aren’t “moping police” standing ready to arrest me and drag me away to bad-attitude jail. And why shouldn’t I enjoy this experience of intense self-pity? Maybe I wasn’t to revel in a show of grandiose brooding.”
The Weekend Bucket List is a “can do” role model for teens who are confused about how to love without losing themselves, and how to discover what gives their lives meaning.
My heart broke when the kids were ruthless, when they sold themselves short, and when they felt the guilt of their immaturity. And I cheered as they realized their true needs, worked towards them, and discovered the fortitude to become more than they had dreamed.
As each teen makes choices, both good and bad, I marveled at Kerick’s unflinching ability to hold their pain with respect, and to let her characters fight for their dignity. This is why The Weekend Bucket List is a “can do” role model for teens who are confused about how to love without losing themselves, and how to discover what gives their lives meaning.
Mostly, The Weekend Bucket List is without artifice, showing readers of any age, why genuineness is the core of happiness. The novel reaches for a lot and exceeded my expectations; a fun, clear-eyed view of three headstrong souls who come of age, by supporting one another.
A copy of The Weekend Bucket List was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by Interlude Press, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
Meet the Author
Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children, a political Progressive, and a writer of multiple award winning YA LGBTQ fiction that focuses on emotional growth in complicated relationships.
Her books have been featured in Kirkus Reviews magazine, have won a 2015 Best YA Lesbian Rainbow Award, a 2017 Best Transgender Contemporary Romance Rainbow Award, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, a YA Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural.
For more from Mia be sure and visit her website!
