Puddle Jumping by Amber L. Johnson
"I don't believe there's such thing as conventional love. Love is bending. Love is breaking. Love is constantly learning about the other person until you go crazy because it will never be perfect, but there's no fault in trying."
*** ABOUT THE BOOK ***
Title: Puddle Jumping
Author: Amber L. Johnson
Genre: Contemporary Romance | Young Adult
*** BOOK BLURB ***
When it comes to love there’s no such thing as conventional.
Everyone thinks Colton Neely is special.
Lilly Evans just thinks he’s fascinating.
Once friends when they were younger, their bond is cut short due to her accident prone nature and they go their separate ways. Years later, they meet again and Lilly learns that there is something special about the boy she once knew, but she has no idea what it all means. And she’s not sure if she’s ready to find out.
When he walks through the corridor of her school the first day of her senior year, she knows that it’s time to get to know the real Colton Neely. The more she learns, the deeper she falls.
Their friendship grows into love, even as Colton does not express it in words. But one decision threatens to break down the world that Lilly has tried so hard to integrate into and she must figure out if the relationship can survive if they are apart.
*** REVIEW ***
It is a coming of age story about an unconventional relationship between a beautiful teenage girl and a wonderful teenage boy with Asperger's. This book is so much more than Lilly falling in love with Colton. It's about realizing true unconditional love has no boundaries.
What makes the story beautiful, is that everything Lilly does, encouraging Colton to be himself while helping him to navigate an altogether strange social world, is that she doesn’t consciously do it for him. She does it because of him, because she’s fascinated by him and cares about him and truly wants to understand his mind. She wants other people to see him as she does, this straightforward, socially inadept boy who simply wants to be near her.
The only reason this book for me isn't 5 stars, is the ending. As strange as it may seem, I didn't want story to end with Hollywood type happily ever after ending. I would have left the story with the last chapter, without Epilogue. And after finishing book, I found out author decided to make it series and is writing a second book, continuation of Lilly's and Colton's story. Don't know how I feel about it...
