Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

Synopsis: 

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama. Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain--people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

“Expelled. Actions have consequences, Mr. Fitzpatrick.  Despite numerous warnings about your cheating, drug use, and pranks, you have again disobeyed our rules and proven yourself unworthy to be a student at Regents Preparatory Academy. Obviously this also means you will not be invited to rejoin us again for your senior year.” 

With this we begin the journey of Derek Fitzpatrick. I have had a love affair with Simone Elkeles’s male characters for years now.  I fell in love with her first male protagonist Alex Fuentes in 2008 and I have stalked her ever since!  She introduced these wonderful characters to the world of YA fiction in her Perfect Chemistry Series.  I was head over heels!  Being her number one fan I am thrilled she has birthed a new series for us all to enjoy!

I loved this book!  Set in Fairfield, the same city her Perfect Chemistry Series takes place, Wild Cards takes place on the other side of town at Fermont High School the rival school of Fairfield High.  We meet Derek and from the get go, he is every bit the bad boy Simone is famous for writing.  Being expelled from private boarding school in the first couple of pages, Derek is forced to move with his stepmother to Chicago.  Not wanting to be there and trying to find his way back home Derek meets his stepmothers little sister and finds she makes him feel things he doesn’t want to own up to.

Ashtyn is a great female character.  She is smart, independent, pretty and she is the star kicker for her school football team.  Ashtyn is dating the quarterback of the football team and is pretty happy with her skills, her friends and her boyfriend…that is until Derek comes along.  

 

Everything isn’t peachy for these two teens, Derek has a loving father but he is in the Navy and lives most of his life underwater in a submarine.  He likes his stepmom but misses his mother whom he lost to cancer as a teen.  Ashtyn’s father isn’t very interested in her life and her mother left as a child so all she has are her friends and her teammates who she cherishes with all her heart.

Told in alternating POV (my favorite way to enjoy a book) you get in the minds of both Derek and Ashtyn and you fall in love with the hearts under their tough hard shells. 

“Keeping Ashtyn at a distance is what I need to do, even though I sense an undercurrent of something I can’t put my finger on and don’t really want to….”~Derek

Derek has a secret that he keeps from Ashtyn, and he harbors guilt about his mother’s death that forced him to quit what was to be a bright football career.  Both Derek and Ashtyn have abandonment issues that cause them to run from each other and fight feelings they have for one another from the beginning. Derek has never been one to commit and Ashtyn has never been one to be in a non-committed relationship.  Both are complete opposites in so many ways yet are so alike in the ways that it counts.

On a trip they take together to Texas, Ashtyn and Derek learn things about each other and themselves that force them to take a closer look at who they are and who they want to be. 

With a fabulous bunch of supporting characters, Monika, Trey, Victor, Brandi, and Mrs. Worthington, this book has humor that takes the edge off.  I think Mrs. Worthington steals the book!  She was amazing and I love her!  

Another great story from Simone and I can’t wait for part 2 in the Wild Card series!!!