Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review Like It Never Happened by Emily Adrian.
The story follows sixteen-year-old Rebecca through her junior year of high school. She get's cast as the lead in the school's performance of The Crucible along with four other students. Together, they decide that they don't want anything to jeopardize their acting abilities and make a pact to never date one another. But soon Rebecca finds herself falling for Charlie, another of the Essential Five. Soon an accusation involving Rebecca and the play's director come to light and Rebecca begins to wonder how far the group of five will go.
Right off the bat, you find out that this book might involve some student-teacher romance. The book opens with Rebecca getting a ride home in Mr. McFadden's car. I won't go into details as to what does or doesn't happen but just be aware for those that aren't a fan of that type of story. For the record, it's not my type of story either and I almost put the book down on page one.
I really loved the drama and theatre aspects of this book. I was worried it was going to be another high school book that dealt with going to class, etc. but I was pleasantly surprised that most of it involved rehearsals. This was also very much a drama book. There were references to the plays they were performing, backstage details, all stuff that I found really interesting.
I think the biggest issue I had with this book was the romance. Not even talking about anything between Rebecca and the director, Rebecca and Charlie's relationship was tepid at best. There was little chemistry there past the initial figuring out they liked each other. I was almost convinced I was going to get another toxic relationship story without even asking for it, but things never made it that far. Charlie was a jerk and Rebecca was too infatuated with him to see it.
The writing of the book saved it for me. There were times when I felt like I was reading two different stories, Rebecca's school life and Rebecca's home and family life, but for the most part, Adrian wove a story that was easy to read and quickly paced. I think I read this book in about 2.5 hours, not necessarily because I was enjoying the storyline, but because I could read it easily.
I, like a lot of other reviewers, didn't connect with many of the characters. I liked the theatre aspect, however, I've never done theatre. I don't necessarily need to connect with a character to enjoy a book but it always helps. I think that was one of the flaws of this book and made me take a step back from the story.
Overall, I wouldn't call this book particularly inspiring or ground breaking, but I enjoyed it enough to keep reading it.