The Backup Plan by Jen McLaughlin – a Review

Description:
I’m beyond help…

I threw a football before I could walk. Everything in my life revolved around football–and I loved every second. I was a star. Until, suddenly…I wasn’t. Now everyone thinks I’m the monster who killed his best friend. I’m an outcast on campus, silent and alone. Then Taylor Selmer walks back into my life. When will she learn–I’m beyond saving.

I need to save him…

Chase and I used to be friends. But after the accident, nothing was the same. We used to have something special–until we didn’t. But he doesn’t smile anymore. Doesn’t talk. Doesn’t play. It hurts me to see him this way, and I will do everything I can to get him back in the game. Whether he likes it or not.

Review:

The Backup Plan by Jen McLaughlin is the first book in her Back in the Game New Adult series. I loved McLaughlin’s Sons of Steel Row series, and decided to check out her new series. I did enjoy this book, but it was a different type of read for me by McLaughlin, as it is New Adult, which I am not really a big fan of.

In The Backup Plan, we meet our heroine, Taylor Selmar, who enrolls in the same college as her childhood friend Chase. Taylor’s parents have worked in the Maxwell house as servants, and Taylor grew up there. But she hasn’t seen Chase in a long time, and when she is offered a deal by his father to enroll at the college, get her degree, and to help Chase with his studies and help him get out of his funk; she accepts.

Chase Maxwell is suffering from a shoulder injury from a car accident where his best friend was killed. Though Chase was not at fault, he blames himself for his friend’s death, and is in a rut, where he rarely talks to anyone for the past 6 months. His school friends treat Chase like an outcast, as they feel he was at fault and give him a hard time. When Taylor finds Chase, he is surprised to see her, and in the beginning, as she does everything she can to motivate him, he is belligerent to her, as he is to others in the school.

What follows is a slow built sweet romance that is intense at times. I did like Taylor and Chase together and watching Taylor slowly bring Chase back was heartwarming to see. Taylor was a great heroine, with the perfect amount of sass to handle Chase, and their banter between them was fun. At the same time, she was very vulnerable to her situation with Chase’s father. As they both began to realize that they were falling in love, the pressure mounts for Taylor, as she loves Chase, but the threats to her family will cause her to step back, causing their relationship to suffer. Will Taylor tell Chase the truth? Will she give up Chase to save her family?

Besides Chase’s father, there is an ex-girlfriend who is also determined to win Chase back, creating more havoc for Taylor and Chase. I thought early on Chase was nasty, but he turned around and ended up to be great. The Backup Plan was well written by McLaughlin, and the two main characters were very likable. If you enjoy the new adult genre, with some angst, and a nice romance, I suggest you read this book.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher