Review: Slammed by Colleen Hoover!

Posted September 10th, 2012 by Nereyda @Mostly YA Book Obsessed & filed under 5 stars, ARC, Colleen Hoover, Favorite Quotes, Point of Retreat, review, Slammed.

Slammed: Slammed #1

By Colleen Hoover

Release Date: 09/18/12

Paperback/e-book

314 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

Following the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Outwardly, she appears resilient and tenacious, but inwardly, she’s losing hope.
Enter Will Cooper: The attractive, 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense emotional connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.
Not long after an intense, heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together, and the secret that keeps them apart.

***ARC received by Simon & Schuster for review***

I’ve seen this book around on Goodreads for a couple of months with like a million 5 star reviews. Those always make me nervous. After reading the summary I couldn’t figure out what was so special about this book that everyone was going crazy over. I mean, the summary is pretty generic and not specific enough in my opinion. And another thing that had me worried: Slam poetry? Really? I’m not really the poetry type although I can appreciate it when it’s very well written. I didn’t even know what the heck Slam poetry was and I had to google it. When I found out what it was, it definitely intrigued me. After reading yet another raving 5 star review, I decided to finally give it a try. Slammedstarts out like a typical YA book…but that is where the similarities end.

Following the sudden death of her dad, Layken’s mom decides to move her and her little brother from Texas to a small town in Michigan. Lake is still grieving and is hurt and angry about her dad’s death and having to move. But when she sees her hot neighbor, Will, suddenly Michigan isn’t looking so bad after all. After some serious flirting, Will takes Lake on a date to a nightclub where they perform Slam poetry. Through his performance, he is able to tell Lake his story. How his parents died when he was only 19 years old leaving him to take care of his younger brother. Lake falls for him hard and things are looking good between them, until something about Will’s life comes up that is a big obstacle for their relationship. (Don’t worry, they’re not related or anything like that) Now, all of a sudden, Will and Lake must go back to being just friends. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard if they weren’t neighbors, or if their little brothers hadn’t become best friends and spend almost all their time together, or if they didn’t have such strong feelings for each other. The more Will and Lake try to fight their feelings for each other, the further they are pulled apart. When things can’t possibly get any worse, Lake suffers another huge blow that will forever change her life. How long can they fight their feelings before they are pulled too far apart?

I was NOT ready for what this story would do to me emotionally! I do not read on the weekends, hardly ever! But I decided to read a little bit of this around 1am and ended up finishing around 5:45am. This book absolutely sucked me in and it was literally impossible to NOT keep reading it. After all, who needs sleep anyway? This story has so many layers, not just the relationship between Lake and Will, but the relationship with Lake and her mom and little brother, Will and his little brother and Lake and her new friend Eddie (I freaking LOVED HER!). On top of that, we also had the slam poetry pieces that Will and several other people performed. Remember me saying I’m not a big fan of poetry? Well just scratch that out because I totally fell in love with Slam poetry! After I finished Slammed, I was an emotional wreck. My mind couldn’t yet comprehend this beautiful yet heartbreaking work of art that I had just read. All I knew was that I needed more. More Lake and Will, more of their adorable little brothers, more of Eddie and definitely more slam poetry! Luckily I had the sequel, Point of Retreat, just waiting to be read on my Kindle. I can’t even talk about that book yet…

Forget about all the 5 star reviews you have read about Slammed and forget about this review. Go into it with a clear and open mind and it won’t be long before you too will absolutely fall in love with this story too! For me, Slammed was so much more than a story, it was a beautiful experience that I will never forget and will definitely read over and over again! Emotional and riveting, heartbreaking but beautiful, Slammed has easily become one of my all time favorite reads!

5 out of 5 super sparkly stars!

Some of my favorite non-spoiler quotes from Slammed:

(There are so many but the rest are too spoilery)

-“And what’s a slam?” I ask.

“It’s poetry.” He smiles at me. “It’s what I’m all about.”

Is he for real? A hot guy who makes me laugh and loves poetry? Someone pinch me. Or not-I’d rather not wake up.

-But I can tell by watching you

That there’s no chance of pushing through

The odds are so against us

You know most young love, it ends like this.

The Avett Brothers-I Would Be Sad

-I listen and take in everything he says. Really, though, all I hear is, “We can’t be together…blah blah blah…we can’t be together.”

-There’s a slight moment of hesitation in his eyes just before his lips close over mine. In the past, his kisses have been very delicate and smooth. There’s a different hunger behind him now. He slides his hands under my shirt and grasps at my waist. I return his kisses with the same feverish passion. I run my hands through his hair and pull him to me as I lie back on the couch.

About the Author

Oh, man. Profiles suck! But,here we go. I’m addicted to and seriously floored by the talent of The Avett Brothers band, which is obvious in both of my books. They are 99% of my playlist. The other 1% being Eminem and Jason Mraz.
I love lindor truffles (the white ones with the chips inside) and have an unhealthy addiction to diet pepsi. A serious addiction.
I get stoked whenever I get a message from goodreads saying I have a new friend request…so request me, dangit!
If you want to know when I have new books out or just want to be inundated by daily, pointless blog posts, follow me at www.colleenhoover.com
Avoid my Twitter at all cost. It’s propaganda.

Website

https://colleenhoover.com

Twitter username

@colleenhoover