One Moment by Kristina McBride

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Pages: 272pgs

The Story

This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie's life. Now it's the one she'd do anything to forget.

Maggie Reynolds remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after blowout party the night before. She remembers climbing the trail hand in hand with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can't she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below - dead?

As Maggie's memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where diid he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?

The latest novel from the author of The Tension of Opposites, One Moment is a mysterious, searing look at how an instant can change everything you believe about the world around you.

The Review

A big thanks to the publisher on netGalley for accepting my request in reading this book early!

This is the first book I've read of Kristina McBride's and it certainly won't be the last that I'll read of hers because her second book, ONE MOMENT, was such a fantastic YA contemporary read, one that deals with unexpected loss, terrible grief, a lot of trust issues, and a whole lot of complications involving friends and family along the journey.

Maggie Reynolds has been dating her boyfriend for almost two years straight and she's deeply in love with him. He's the perfect boyfriend after all. Then everything changes in a split second when she and Joey are on the edge of a cliff and they're about to plunge down into the dark waters below. But just when they're about to jump, Maggie soon forgets everything and with this 'everything' she is told later on that her boyfriend is dead. Below the cliff. Dead in the dark waters. How can she NOT remember his death? As she soon comes to terms with her boyfriend's death, Maggie will need to uncover what exactly happened on that unfortunate night and find out why her friends are acting so strange and why everyone - including herself - seems to think that Joey had left behind a whole lot of secrets . . . secrets that could change Maggie and the world she knows forever.

The thing I loved most about ONE MOMENT was how it was written - switching back and forth between the past and present. It not only gave me a clearer picture about what was going on and helped me out by putting together the tiny little pieces of clues that were scattered throughout the book, but it also gave me a chance to get to know Maggie's boyfriend, Joey, whom dies very early on in the book, so I'm glad to have a chance to get to know him as he's the center part of this book and of Maggie's grief that we read about. I also loved how flowing the words were of the storyline and I felt nothing was ever rushed, even for a much shorter contemporary book. It was great and completely engrossing from page one!

As for the characters, every single one of them had their own part to play. While I didn't necessarily like Maggie's girl friends (Shannon in particular), but out of all of the characters I wholeheartedly loved and adored Maggie, the main protagonist, and her friend Adam the most. Their relationship was kind of a sacred thing and despite seeing - well guessing - something was going on between them . . . I still just loved their interactions with one another. They were so genuine and so sweet. While everyone else is grieving over the loss of Joey, Maggie's now ex-boyfriend, there's just these intense feelings flying about between Mags and Adam, and as others may not see it, they felt like they were the only two people whom understood one another so that was a nice element to add to the storyline of grief and loss. But as for Adam . . . boy I loved that guy and I so wanted more from him! He was . . . so cute.

Overall, Kristina McBride's ONE MOMENT was a little heart-breaker of a book and it offered up all sorts of things I love in my young adult contemporary books, and by the time I reached the end of the book, I had this little smile plastered onto my face. A real happy one. So I can't wait to read more from this author, which I'm sure will be even more great things!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars