Review: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

5 great soft and chewy snickerdoodles.

Cover Love:
It's eye catching, but no, I don't love it. I would have liked to see Lissa's face more.

Why I Wanted to Read This:
The synopsis just intrigued me. Here it is from Amazon:

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.

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. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming.

I Kept Reading Because:
The story and Lissa caught my attention right away. I read it one day, it was hard to put down.

Romance?: Yes! I love Cash.

What I Liked (& Didn't):
To be honest, I almost stopped reading after the first page. I didn't want to read a book about high school kids having sex. Or girls using sex as a power play with a group of boys. But I gave it more of a chance and found I really liked Lissa. And the author put a few nuggets out there that I wanted to follow.

I am married to a soccer coach and raising two soccer players, so I have loved that the good guy was a soccer player!

There were so many good scenes in this book between the girls: I loved when they finally opened up and talked about what they thought was expected of girls and women in regards to sex. I also really liked all the times that double standards between boys and girls were pointed out. There were just some things said in this book that I would love to have heard when I was a teenager and I think girls today would find them very beneficial.

Did I mention that I loved Cash. I also loved that Lissa was finally able to see herself as beautiful and worthy!

To Sum Up:
Super enjoyable read that I would recommend for older teens. Sadly, I feel the language and sex talk makes it a bit old for my library. This is a powerful novel!

ARC requested and received from publisher.