
And I must admit that Ms. Frederick had me rather mystified at the beginning as well. DOWNED seemed to me at first so surreal, that I was wondering if Bryant was a faerie or some sort of paranormal creature, but no. Bryant’s whole “bad boy whispering” feels strange until, as the story progresses, I understood what she was doing and why she was doing it. Not that this surreal feeling was unpleasant, it was odd, but still fun. I presume that DOWNED is classified as a sports romance, and I must say Ms. Frederick’s knowledge of football is impressive, and while there is quite a bit of football talk, a reader who knows – or cares - nothing about the game, will enjoy the book just as well, because it is about the characters.
From the quirkiness of the beginning, the story moves quickly to a very atypical bad boy-good girl trope. Bryant is a very good girl, and Ace is more of a bad boy serious about changing his ways; he is well-intentioned, but his teammates ignore him, and he is actually willing to improve himself. The characters are very well drawn, from the principals to bit players: Coach Johnson is fabulous; Bryant is intriguing and splendidly southern; Ace is just wonderfully complex, and I loved how his interactions with his new teammates were handled.
I must say I was very pleasantly surprised with DOWNED. It is extremely well written – and superbly edited - the narrative flows smoothly, and the dialogues are excellent. I really got the feeling that the characters were young, but not clueless, as they often feel in New Adult novels, the dialogues also suited every character, there was a difference in the voices. A very serious issue is tackled when it comes to Bryant’s family, and I suppose this would be a trigger for some people, so beware, but it happened in the past and there is nothing graphic, but it touched a few people deeply, as it should have. I thought that issue was handled with a lot of care and compassion by the author and the characters. DOWNED feels to me exactly what I have always looked for in a New Adult novel. I loved how the characters naturally evolved, nothing felt manufactured. DOWNED is a fabulous, fabulous book: fun, surprisingly deep, with great character development! Ms. Frederick was a new author to me, and what an introduction!
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Monique Daoust: Facebooks - Twitter - Goodreads
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Great review Monique I really enjoy a good sports story I need to add this one to the never ending list :)
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Helen
I love a good sports story too. This one is going on my never-ending list.
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