Under the Lights by Abbi Glines | Review

Willa can’t erase the bad decisions of her past that led her down the path she’s on now. But she can fight for forgiveness from her family. And she can protect herself by refusing to let anyone else get close to her.

High school quarterback and town golden boy Brady used to be the best of friends with Willa—she even had a crush on him when they were kids. But that’s all changed now: her life choices have made her a different person from the girl he used to know.

Gunner used to be friends with Willa and Brady, too. He too is larger than life and a high school football star—not to mention that his family basically owns the town of Lawton. He loves his life, and doesn’t care about anyone except himself. But Willa is the exception—and he understands the girl she’s become in a way no one else can.

As secrets come to light and hearts are broken, these former childhood friends must face the truth about growing up and falling in love…even if it means losing each other forever.

- Goodreads Overview

To be honest I was not expecting this book to have such a deep and detailed storyline when I picked it up. Since this was my first book I decided to read after not reading for a while, I wanted something sweet and easy to read. So when I saw this book at the bookshop yesterday for $5, I knew I had to buy it and read it immediately!

As far as my quest for a good romance book went, this was really quite a hit. I enjoyed the romance build up in this book. Because even if it was a little predictable who the female lead would end up with, you could still see character development occur.

The characters Willa and Gunner seemed to grow as people as their romance grew, but the third character in their love-triangle was Brady and I was a little disappointed about how he didn't seem to really progress much throughout the book. This also wasn't helped by the fact that I felt as though at times the love-triangle was being forced upon the reader, especially from the sudden kisses from both boys.

And even though I did find both of Willa's first kiss with each boy a little bit out of nowhere, it also added a sense of realness to the book. Because there was no insane lead up, if felt more natural in this storyline.

One part of the book that I found both sad and also real was Gunner and Brady's friendship. They were written as being very close when they were kids, but as they grew older they drifted apart and their friendship became less close and more of a fall back option. And this was sad for me because I understand how hard it is when you drift away from a good friend of yours, but having this included in the book felt real. And I loved this. 

Also the fact that the boys knew they could always depend on one another was really great and it was refreshing to see a book where there is a male friendship being developed and not specifically about a female orientated friendship. 

Also I have to say that I accidentally read this series out of order... so Under the Lights is book two in the Field Party series by Abbi Glines... BUT!!! I didn't feel lost or confused at all reading this book, and I think that's because these books can all be read as stand alone books, however all the characters carry over from book to book. So as I was reading this book, I was actually thinking "wow, these secondary characters could so have a spin off about their romance." And it turns out that they don't need a spin off, since they are the focus of book one!

I need to also say that I have a prediction about book three! I haven't read the synopsis or even looked at it's title, but I think it will focus around Brady finding a relationship. And I think it will be with a character called Riley.

Riley was only mentioned in about three chapters total, but in a chapter written in Brady's POV, I really got a heavy foreshadowing feeling and the chapter with the two of them didn't help to forward the plot of the book at all, so it think it is definitely hinting at something... So I will have to keep you up to date on if I am anywhere close to guessing what will happen in book three. But I do think that I have to read book one first.

(Just a little update on my above comment, I just went to the book store and brought book three and four - and let me tell you that my prediction about Brady and Riley was totally correct!)

One completely random thing that I do have to say about this book is that the title feels like it doesn't really match the story. Apart from one flashback at the end, it just didn't seem to correlate with any part of the book. And that is in no way a bad thing, but it was something I noticed as I was reading.

One of my favourite things when reading a book is trying to figure out why the author choose a particular title. Sometimes the title is totally obvious, but other times, you really have to look deeper to find out why it was chosen. So for this book, it felt like an after though thrown in at the end - in the form of a flashback to link the title and the book.

All in all, I really did enjoy reading this book! It was a super easy read and had all of the main points in it that I wanted.

So I am going to give this book 4 stars!

Thanks for reading this review!

Until next time, keep reading!

- Shelbi