DEAR AVA – ILSA MADDEN-MILLS

**Spoilers Ahead, Read On With Caution**

First time reading this author, and I was happily impressed as I couldn’t seem to make myself put it down. The books aimed at 18+ because of some traumatic events that occur, so heads up there. 

Diving into the book you start with Ava waking up in a foggy state of mind, and not knowing why she’s laying in some long grass by some woods she was previously partying in with her high school chums. Fast forwarding, we get to then see Ava reentering her school, Camden Prep, for her senior year after being gone for 10 months. We’re introduced slightly to the Sharks of the school (top, rich, elite students – classic mean kids) four of them being Knox and Dane Grayson, her ex Chance and Liam. No one welcomes her warmly, and it’s all very victim shaming from the start, but that’s the point. The book is angling to show us how girls who speak out against the actions of football players can be shunned and blamed.

On her first day, in her locker she finds a love note from a Shark, but doesn’t know which one. At her locker is also where we meet one of my favourite characters, Wyatt. He’s Bostonian, a baseball player, gay and loud; he’s brilliant and they’re fast friends. Shoving the note to one side, we soon start to see the plot thicken..

Dear Ava,

Your eyes are the color of the Caribbean Sea.

Wait. That’s stupid.

What I really mean is, you look at me and I feel something REAL.

It’s been ten months since you were here, but I can’t forget you.

I’ve missed seeing you walk down the hall.

I’ve missed you cheering at my football games.

I’ve missed the smell of your hair.

And then everything fell apart the night of the kegger.

Don’t hate me because I’m a Shark.

I just want to make you mine.

Still.

One thing that is very well done in this book is its pace. You’re constantly being pushed along with the plot. The book is set between the POV’s of Ava and Knox, so we get a pretty rounded viewpoint of her having been gone, and what it was like with her gone and then coming back. I liked getting Knox’s viewpoint as he’s the head Shark, the best friend to her ex boyfriend, and the QB1 with a crumbling twin. He was a somewhat complex and interesting character compared to Ava who was fierce, defiant and secretly more broken then she ever let anyone see. In true enemies to lovers fashion, they absolutely spark with rage and resentment at each other. And with all the flashback scenes we get from Ava, we start to see why. Heated arguments, confusing looks, and biting comments, leave you pondering their status. Knox struck me as infatuated but in denial, with a scar down the side of his face from brow to lip, he was intriguing to most of the schools female student body, and had a bleachers reputation to boot. 

A favourite moment for me was the two epilogues we receive (lucky us) because they’re so pure and hopeful. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.