"Shut Out" should be anything but shut out!

So I got a great surprise the other day in the mail...I had pre-ordered my copy of Shut Out by Kody Keplinger (the author of The DUFF, which is a book I continuously praise!); and even though the book isn't supposed to be released until September 5th...I guess Barnes and Noble made a mistake and sent out the book already, and I ended up getting mine yesterday :).

Not wanting to give up the opportunity to be one of the first (hopefully...;)) readers of Kody's new book Shut Out, I started reading it almost immediately!  And I finished it this morning!

It's pretty rare when I can read a book that fast, because even though I'm a pretty fast reader, most of the time I can pull myself away from a book to go something else...but just like Kody's first book The DUFF, I found myself not being able to put down the Shut Out.  It took me about two hours and I had already been about half way through, and then I continued reading until about 10:30 or 11 p.m. last night, and then this morning I read the remaining few pages (I had to get some sleep after all ;)).

Well anyway, as you can probably tell I REALLY loved the book!

Now to what it's about:

Shut Out is a modern day version of the famous Greek play Lysistrata, which is about a story about the battle of sexes.  In the modern day Kody version, which is pretty similar to the original of course, it deals with a ten year long rivalry between the soccer and football teams of Hamilton High, the school that Lissa, the main character attends.  The rivalry has gotten so ridiculous that both teams no longer have any idea about why it started in the first place, and team members are seriously getting hurt for no reason.

One night, while Lissa is with her football Quarterback boyfriend, Randy, she finds a way to end the rivalry...a sex strike!  Banding together with the girlfriends of both the football and soccer teams, they all decide to not have any sort of sexual contact with their boyfriends until the boys figure out a way to end this stupid rivalry.

Along the way, as you can imagine, things do start going wrong, like Lissa getting to know one of the members of the soccer team better...  But this book kept me hooked from beginning until end.  It's steamy, hot, cute, characters are relate able and lovable, it's deals with friendships, relationships; it's definitely a book that a lot of girls can find themselves relating to.

What I really liked about this book was that the main character, Lissa, has some similarities with Bianca, the main character from Kody's first novel The DUFF, but then at some points was the opposite.  While Bianca was really outspoken, and just said what was on her mind, Lissa was shy and couldn't find herself saying half the things she wanted to get out.  Lissa wants to be in control, which is something that she sort of had in common with Bianca, because Bianca wanted to be in control of her relationship with Wesley. 

Overall rating:


Kody writes in a way that keeps me, as a reader, engaged and always on my feet wanting more.  I found this to be true with The DUFF and Shut Out.  It's great!

As soon as it comes out on Tuesday, check it out!

The Romance Bookie :)

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