Review: Hooked

Hooked, by Liz Fichera. The GoodReads summary:

When Native American Fredricka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done.

But Fred’s presence on the team isn’t exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred.

But there’s no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile...

So there I was totally enjoying this book—I had some issues with it, sure, but I was really having fun—when wham! The ending came and ruined it. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a book with such promise muff it so badly when it came to the resolution. I mean, it almost left me speechless with just how majorly the ending fell apart. It did not resolve anything in a believable way. Every single thing about how it all worked out was far too easy and superficial and unbelievable. Not to mention the ending felt abrupt—I was expecting at least another chapter for the characters to work things out, but nope. I got sent straight to the epilogue. It all left me feeling rather frustrated and disappointed, especially considering how much I was enjoying the story up to that point.

But enough about the ending. The other main thing that bugged me about the story was Ryan, the love interest. What a douche, is all I have to say. Actually, that’s NOT all I have to say; I’m going to harp on him a little more. He’s trying, I’ll give him that. And I know it can be hard to stand up to your friends, but still—he’s a coward in my book. He does manage to stand up for Fred in the little ways, but every time it really matters, he drops the ball. So I got really tired of him always doing the wrong thing. And don’t even get me started on the way he gets back in Fred’s good graces with a dramatic gesture rather than by consistently proving that he’s changed.

As for Fred, I liked her and the fact that she goes after her dreams despite her difficult circumstances. And I loved that she never lets the Ryan drama affect her committment to golf. I also thought her reactions to her Native American culture were well written. She’s maybe a little embarrassed by it at times, but she’s generally respectful and proud of it. The only thing that got on my nerves about her was that her expectations for her relationship with Ryan were too high to fast—like, she expected one date and a kiss to mean that they were going to live happily ever after forever—so I kinda rolled my eyes at her dramatic reaction to Ryan being a jerk to her after that.

Overall, I think the disappointing ending made me slightly more critical of this book than I would’ve been otherwise. Because really, up until the end, the story is totally readable. I even made it through Ryan’s douchey-ness because I was having such a good time reading the book. And I appreciated that though it’s essentially a teen romance, it explores issues in a way that’s meaningful without becoming too heavy-handed for the type of book it is. And then it had to go and lose my respect with that ending. Grrr.

Rating: 3 / 5