Until Friday Night is Abbi Glines newest release, so this makes like what her 50th book or something insane like that?? It's also the first Ya book I've ever read by her. I didn't even know she wrote Ya. Anyways, when I read what this book was about all I could think of was how sweet it sounded. Then the reviews started pouring in on Goodreads and all of them were either one star/listed as DNF or five stars/listed as a favorite. This is ultimately why I decided to pick this up. I wanted to read for myself why so many people were torn about this one and I totally get it too.
UFN follows high school student Maggie Carleton, who after having a traumatic experience has decided not to talk. Our other main character is West Ashby, (whose name is completely adorable btw). He is Mr. jock-popular-high school-man slut (of course right). Maggie is shy, timid, and polite. While West is the complete opposite. Maggie between the two is the character I liked right away. Her thoughts are strong and she's intelligent. West however wasn't as enjoyable. It took me a long time to like him. He would think these strong sweet thoughts, but then would do these horrible nasty gross actions. Without a doubt him and his friends are the reasons people were putting this book down (Ill get to that in a minute). These two of course start falling for each other. With Maggie's cousin Brady being on the same football team as West automatically says that she is off limits for any of his friends. This doesn't stop the two from constantly being drawn to one another.
As far as the plot goes on, it heads exactly where you think it will. There's no wicked plot twist or event that you wont see comings and to me this was completely okay. However this story flaws lie with a lot of events that played out in the first half of this book. I'll just kind of rattle off why I know people couldn't push through this, but why they should. People kept bringing up "sexual harassment", I think that's a really strong word to use, but at the same time I get it. The guys in this book are huge DICKS! I also think it gives jocks a terrible name. I don't know if since I wasn't cool in high-school and didn't really hang out with "jocks" that I might not get this, but I don't remember anyone ever saying they were anything like this. I could be wrong though, like I said I didn't really have any sporty friends in school. The things these guys would say and do... Vomit straight vomit. The way they treated people, especially Maggie, was awful. West would just continued to fuel my hate fire for him as well. He would say what one of the guys did was "being too cold" towards someone but then would do something worse! In one scene he hears his mother crying and he's like "this is why I can't be nice to girls"... Let me be clear it has nothing to do with his mom being a nasty person or in a nasty relationship... So when this happened I seriously screamed "WTF WEST THAT MAKES NO SENSE!!!!!! HER CRYING IS THE REASON YOU SHOULD BE SWEET TOO GIRLS AND TREAT THEM LIKE THE PRINCESSES THEY ARE!!!!! YA DICK!"... Plus things with his Ex girlfriend were annoying and the way he turned into a stage 5 clinger wasn't helping his case either... Seriously though don't even get me started on his ex girlfriend... laksfl;aksj;lfkas;kldjf SO ANNOYING AND OVER THE TOP!!!!
These events along with a lot of others ones had me considering not finishing this either... But I really hate not finishing books so I pushed forth. Thank God I did too. Once West actually starts hanging out Maggie things take a very dramatic turn. He turns from a sour grape to a ripe peach. He starts treating himself and others the way they should be treated. Starts realizing that he was being a creepy jerk turd and starts to change his act. This was the West I was waiting for the whole time! Once he changes to, he goes from zero dark crazy too a total swoon worthy book boyfriend. He's not the only one who has a ton of development either, Maggie herself takes on new life. Once she starts standing up for herself and not taking crap you'll start falling more into the story as well. All these changes really jump start the plot and gets this love story going.
I wish the first half of this book was as strong as the last half. I consider the first half a one star/dnf but the second half a 5 star/favorite read. If you pick up UFN, get into it, and then think about putting it down, please reconsider. It does get better. By the end I was completely sold and was thankful for pushing through. Until Friday Night might not be the strongest book ever written, but it was a quick fun read that I think some are being a little hard on. I also easily think this could be made into a cute movie.
8/10 Stars
-Angela
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