Shut Out, by Kody Keplinger

Series: None
Release Date: September 2011
Publisher: Poppy
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 273
Format: ARC
Source: Smitten With Books ARC Tours

SYNOPSIS - (From Goodreads)
Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it’s a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy’s car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend’s attention.
Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players’ girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won’t get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don’t count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling…

THOUGHTS
Shut Out was not at all what I expected. Actually, it was so much better!  The plot seemed interesting, but I didn’t care much for it in the beginning. Though when I actually received the book from a tour I was participating in, I couldn’t get enough of what I was reading.
Lissa is a great main character. She was strong, smart, and solved (most of) her problems easily. After reading the first couple of chapters, I realized where Lissa was coming from and what she was going through with her boyfriend. It didn’t seem much of a problem to me at first, but a school “civil war” between football and soccer does seem pretty annoying.
I was surprised to see how much Randy, Lissa’s boyfriend, cared so much about pulling pranks on the soccer team. I really thought he was a loyal boyfriend. Lissa and Randy seemed like a good couple. Throughout the book I learned that Randy wasn’t as great as he seemed and developed a hatred of some sort towards him.
Cash, on the other hand, was so much better than Randy. I think everyone who has read Shut Out can agree! Kody Keplinger described him not only as better looking, but smarter than Randy. I knew Cash was a better match for Lissa after the dance incident. The back story between Lissa and Cash Keplinger created was so cute! Keplinger puts the true meaning in “unrequited love” in the subplot.
Finally, staying up all night until I finished reading Shut Out was definitely worth it. Shut Out made me laugh and make me kind of angry, but I was more than satisfied with the ending. If you haven’t read this novel yet, I highly recommend that you do so now! Keplinger does not disappoint.

Rating:

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