Kick, Push di Jay McLean

There’s a single defining moment within every skater. It lasts only a second. Two if you're good. Three if you’re really good. It’s the moment you’re in the air, your board somewhere beneath you, and nothing but wind surrounds you. It’s the feeling of being airborne. The sixteen-year-old version of me would’ve said it was the greatest feeling in the world. Then at seventeen, I had my son. And every single second became a defining moment. Even the ones that consisted of heartbreak when his mother left us.

Seventeen. Single. Dad.

That’s what my life became.

Yet, every day, I managed to find that feeling of being airborne.

Or at least I convinced myself I did.

But I lied—to myself and to everyone around me.

Until she showed up; Tanned skin, raven dark hair, and eyes the color of emeralds.

You know what sucks about being in the air?

Coming down from the high.

Sometimes you land on the board and nail the trick. Then kick, push, and coast away. Other times you fall. You fall hard. And those are the times when it’s not as easy to get back up, dust off your pads and try again. Especially when the girl with the emerald eyes becomes your drug... And you become her poison.

Before I start this review, I should say that I'm a sucker for baby daddies. Blame it on the hormones, blame it on nature itself of being a girl, I read the plot for Kick, Push and my heart has started to melt.

I hoped so hard that this book didn't let me down, and it kinda surprised me, at the end.

“Kick, Push”, tells the story of Joshua and his son Tommy, two well-known characters for those of you who read “Where the road takes me”, (If you haven’t read it yet, don’t worry. Kick, Push can be read as a stand-alone).

The beginning of the story is fast, but strong. We enter Joshua's world with such a powerful choice of words, we remained hooked. We live the struggle of being a seventeen years old father, abandoned by his family and his girlfriend, mother of his child.

We live the desperation of not being able to support a baby, to not know what is gonna happen to us.

I placed Tommy, in his car seat, on the ground and I cursed. I kicked the brick wall. And I broke some more. Tommy cried louder. I slid down the wall until I was next to him and pulled him out of the seat and into my arms. Rocking him. Soothing him. And I cried—tasting my tears mixed with his sweat on his forehead as I kissed him. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry. Daddy’s gonna make it okay. Daddy isn’t going anywhere, okay? I’ll never leave you. Never. I promise.”

It’s heart-breaking, and painful. But fortunately, someone reaches out for Joshua, someone who let us believe that there’s gonna be hope, there’s gonna be a future.

Doesn’t mean, though, that all the problems are gone away.

That’s what I like the most about this book.

This story doesn’t mess with you. It doesn’t let you think that once you got love, and friends, and support, everything is gonna be alright. Life has a fun way to mess you up, when you least expect it, and Joshua, after all, is still a seventeen years old boy who’s been forced to grow up too fast.

For the same reason, I like the fact that this book is part of a series. Don’t let the cliffhanger annoys you. This story would have been so less meaningful if ended in just one book. This story needed a second book. The characters themselves, needed it.

“You know what comes after you kick and push? You coast.
Coast with me, Emerald Eyes?”

We’re all still waiting to coast.

I liked Joshua and Becca together. They didn’t expect to find each other and their story is messy, funny, unpredictable, like love unexpected is. It goes on step by step. Sexy and funny, grownup and childish, at the same time.

She fists my shirt and pulls me closer, cutting me off. And then she leans up and kisses me.Holy shit, does she kiss me. Properly.Not the shit version of a kiss I attempted. Her mouth covers mine, her wet lips moving across my lips. Just once. And then her tongue repeats the process and, fire truck, I give in to her and her kiss and her hands and her everything.I take everything she gives, returning it as best I can.

Little we know about Becca. What hurt her so much. Or who. We only found out at the end of the book, and we’ll finally be able to understand her better.

I loved this book. Jay McLean knows how to write beautiful stories.

Fingers crossed, for the second.

Jay McLean is the author of the More Series, including More Than This, More Than Her, More Than Him and More Than Forever. She also has two standalones coming soon titled Where The Road Takes Me, and Combative. Jay is an avid reader, writer, and most of all, procrastinator. When she's not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her two little boys, or devouring some tacky reality TV show.
She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her smile, make her hurt, and make her feel.