Moment of Truth - Review

Moment of Truth (Love Life and the List, # 3)

By: Kasie West

Publication: March 3rd 2020 by HarperTeen

352 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library (birthday present)

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Goodreads description--At sixteen, Hadley Moore knows exactly who she is—a swimmer who will earn a scholarship to college. Totally worth all the hard work, even if her aching shoulders don’t agree.

So when a guy dressed as Hollywood’s latest action hero, Heath Hall, crashes her swim meet, she isn’t amused. Instead, she’s determined to make sure he doesn’t bother her again. Only she’s not sure exactly who he is.

The swim meet isn’t the first event the imposter has interrupted, but a little digging turns up a surprising number of people who could be Heath Hall, including Hadley's ex-boyfriend and her best friend’s crush. She soon finds herself getting caught up in the mysterious world of the fake Heath Hall.

As Hadley gets closer to uncovering the masked boy’s identity, she also discovers some uncomfortable truths about herself—like she might resent the long shadow her late brother has cast over her family, that she isn’t as happy as she pretends to be with her life choices…and that she's falling for the last guy she ever thought she would like.

While I won't say I've ever been a fan of the lengthy titles for this series (Love, Life, and the List & Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss), I will say that I like consistency. Hearts, Heroes, and Heath Hall stuck with the alliteration pattern of the series so I was a little confused and disappointed with the title change.

Oh, I love Kasie West. I can always count on her. Always. Her books are clean. No language and no sexual scenes. But seriously for those who might argue differently, Kasie West 100% proves those things aren't necessary for a good story...for a good love story. I will devour all of her books as long as she is willing to keep writing them.

Sometimes I do find the plots for Kasie West's books not to be unique. I never tend to mind because she does each book so well by connecting me to the characters. In this case, I loved the Heath Hall aspect of the plot. I thought this was unique and maybe even something I would like to see done in real life. I had some predictions, but Kasie West kept me guessing, and I never felt fully confident in my predictions. There was one trope used where the main character is conversing with an anonymous person and she needs to figure out who she's been chatting with. But the characters bring everything to life.

Hadley, as the description says, is a swimmer. Her ex-boyfriend actually broke up with her because she was so singularly focused on swimming. But who can really blame her when she's working towards a scholarship for college. Yet Hadley learns that she's been unconsciously competing with her dead brother, who died before she was born from leukemia. She has a lot of fear of addressing her feelings with her parents. I felt like this part of the story was so moving.

Jackson is the class clown. The prankster. And Hadley seems to be the only one who isn't charmed by him. If anything she finds him childish and annoying. I loved their transition from antagonism to friends and then more. I connected with Hadley's feelings toward Jackson because I truly found guys in school who behaved in a similar way to be annoying as well. But Jackson is deeper than what he appears.

Moment of Truth was so enjoyable. I blew through it in one day which says a lot because I didn't have a babysitter that day and I still managed to squeezed every free moment into reading it. I kept guessing and I just cheese my way through the whole book. Moment of Truth gets 4 Stars. Have you read Moment of Truth? What did you think? Let me know!