I'll Be Yours By Jenny B. Jones
About this book:
“The day Andrew Levin arrives at Washington High, Harper O’Malley knows he’ll make the perfect starter boyfriend. The school’s newest band geek is totally in Harper’s league, yet completely out of this late-bloomer’s reach. Between fitting in with a new family, scoring the first chair in band, and rescuing dogs for the local animal shelter, Harper’s never had the opportunity to hone her dating skills. But even though Harper’s love life is far from perfect, she’s got the perfect plan.
Harper knows she’s insane to agree to tutor Ridley Estes, a notorious heartbreaker and the star of her high school’s football team—but in exchange, he’s offered to school her in the game of love. Just when she sees promise with her crush, a football scandal rocks her family, her town, and Ridley’s entire future. Harper suddenly has everything to lose—her family, friends, and even her heart. When the dust of the scandal settles, nothing will be the same. Including the girl who asked the most popular jock to teach her about love.”
Series: As of now, no.
Spiritual Content- A couple Scriptures are mentioned & paraphrased; Prayers & Thanking God; Some Church going; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, music, & sermons; Mentions of a Catholic school & nuns; A few mentions of Christmas music; A mention of a blessing; A mention of a nativity scene;
*Note: A few mentions of the South taking football as serious as any religion; A couple mentions of voodoo; A mention of a country going to hell in a handbasket; A mention of damning evidence; A mention of zen; A mention of feng shui.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘crud’, a ‘d-bag’, a ‘dang it’, a ‘douche bag’, a ‘hag’, a ‘holy crap’, a ‘screw this’, a ‘shoot’, a ‘what the heck’, a ‘wimp’, two ‘darn’s, two ‘freaking’s, two ‘heck’s, two ‘jacked up’, two ‘sissy’s, two ‘suck it up’, three ‘idiot’s, three ‘oh my gosh’s, four forms of ‘shut up’, six ‘geez’s, seven forms of ‘dumb’, seven ‘gosh’s, nine ‘crap’s, twelve ‘screw up’s, twenty ‘stupid’; Mentions of curses (said, not written, including by Harper); Sass, Sarcasm, & Eye rolling; Pain (up to semi-detailed); Drunks, fighting, & blood (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of death & torture; Mentions of being shot & threated; Mentions of being slapped, abused, fists, & burns (Harper’s past); Mentions of people using others as punching bags; Mentions of an accident & injuries (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of blood, injuries, & screams; Mentions of a tornado; Mentions of abused & endangered animals (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of crimes; Mentions of jail; Mentions of records of arrests; Mentions of threats & blackmail; Mentions of nightmares, urns, & a fire (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of divorces; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of gossip; Mentions of tattoos; Mentions of alcohol/booze, parties, keg parties, & fighting; Mentions of drunks; A few mentions of deaths from an allergy; A few mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of shooting a deer; A couple mentions of nicotine gum; A couple mentions of hunting & bird dogs with a dead squirrel; A mention of a man being drunk or high; A mention of a saloon; A mention of cheating;
*Note: Mentions of secular celebrities, singers/bands, & songs; Mentions of brand names & designers; A few mentions of zombie, alien, & vampires; A few mentions of TV channels & movies; A mention of Bill Clinton.
Sexual Content- two thumb-to-lips touches, three palm kisses (up to semi-detailed); five cheek kisses, a neck kiss, four forehead/hair kisses, two almost kisses, four semi-detailed kisses, two border-line semi-detailed // detailed kisses; Thinking about a kiss (semi-detailed); Remembering kisses & touches (semi-detailed); Touches, Heat, Dancing, & Hand Holding (up to semi-detailed); Noticing (up to semi-detailed); A ‘baby’, a ‘bimbos’, a ‘ho-bag’, a ‘sleazy’, three forms of ‘hot’, and eight ‘sexy’s; *Spoiler* *End of Spoiler*; Harper wants Andrew to kiss her; Harper says she’s a firm believer in not ‘giving up the goods’; Talks about kisses, kissing, & kissing lessons; Many mentions of boys, boyfriends, girlfriends, crushes, dating, types, kisses, kissing, & a dance; Mentions of cheating; Mentions of snogging/kissing, kisses, lip locking, & making out; Mentions of lip staring; Mentions of touches; Mentions of flirting, blushes, & swooning; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of a boy in Harper’s room (does not in a romantic sense); A few mentions of sleeping together fantasies after a dance (no detailed); A few mentions of leers & suggestive comments; A few mentions of throwing yourself at someone; A couple mentions of ‘sexy wild sex’ (no detailed and did not happened); A couple mentions of lust; A couple mentions of hints of guys trying to take advantage of a young girl (no details); A couple mentions of married couples kissing; A couple mentions of girls keeping their clothes in a guy’s car; A couple mentions of boundaries; A couple mentions of romance novels; A mention of STDs; A mention of something sounding dirty (Ridley says he likes it); A mention of when a guy touches a girl she ‘flings off her bra and her moral’s (somewhat teasing, not confirmed); A mention of a guy’s harem; A mention of teen pregnancy; A mention of hickeys; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Mentions of bras, boobs, & a gay person looking at a girl’s chest; A mention of lesbians; A mention of a flat chest; A mention of breast feeding; A mention of PMS: A mention of testosterone; A couple mentions of unmentionables; A couple mentions of shaving legs & stubble; A mention of offering a lap for sitting needs; A mention of wearing something that looks like a peacock’s butt; A mention of a dog licking it’s butt; A mention of a girl watching a guy’s butt; A mention of staying away from touching a guy’s butt; A mention of getting a guy’s name tattoo on her butt; A mention of a man’s ‘flabby keister’; A mention of a guy calling his backside ‘near-perfect’; A mention of writer’s butt; A mention of seeing butts in a locker room; A mention of practicing a butt off; A mention of working a butt off; A mention of kicking butt; A mention of dusting crumbs off a butt; A mention of a rap song about girls’ butts; A mention of a cheerleader nearly losing her skirt; A mention of a short skirt & Ridley wanting to see Harper in one; A mention of a mini-skirt that caught on fire & burned in very indecent places; A mention of dating the teen equivalents of Victoria’s Secret Angels; A mention of ‘cheap girls’; A mention of strip poker; A mention of a shirtless creep; A mention of a boy ready to debate about being a boy.
-Harper O’Malley, age 16
1st person P.O.V. of Harper
335 pages
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Pre Teens- One Star
New Teens- One Star
Early High School Teens- One Star (and a half)
Older High School Teens- Two Stars
My personal Rating- Two Stars
{Add ½ to 1 star for older girls in public school.}
Jenny B. Jones is a popular author in the Christian YA market due to her humor and sass. I personally would say her books are in between the secular market and the Christian market in terms of content. I always have difficulty with some of the content found in her books and this one was no different than past books. There definitely was content I didn’t think was needed and I would have liked seeing more faith content.
Link to review:
https://booksforchristiangirls.blogsp...
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author. Romance, Cozy, Young Adult
Harper is our protagonist and she thinks she has everything solved when it comes to love, when Andrew arrives at her band class she’s sure he’s the one for her; he seems calm, sweet and has good grades… until Ridley, the football star of the school asks her for help with homework, she accepts but Ridley has to help her with her crush.
Harper is not so excited about this arrangement since Ridley is the type of guy she would never like to go out with he’s the handsome popular guy of the school and she’s ‘out of his league.’ Until things start to change and she realized that Ridley is not that bad to hang out with and that she might have started to develop something for him.
He is up to Harper’s crazy dogs rescues and to share his personal life with her…eventually they see themselves sharing swoon-worthy kisses.
“I smiled at my champion, but he just shook his head and muttered more words in Spanish. I was pretty sure he either called me a beautiful tropical flower or a raving lunatic. Sometimes I get my nouns mixed up.”
Now, not everything is romance because Harper’s family has to confront a lot of problems and Harper sees herself trying to forget someone who hurt her all of this trying to fix the family into what it was before.
I loved Harper’s determination to save dogs and I adored the relationship she had with the team how they were like brothers to her and I also loved Ridley and how he was with his sisters.
I’ll Be Yours is fast, fun and romantic a book about love, forgiveness, hope and new experiences. Romance, Cozy, Young Adult One of my most favorite authors (ever) is Jenny B. Jones. I discovered her particular brand of bookish happiness when she was signed with Thomas Nelson (Harper Collins) and now, after many years away from the author-ing gig, she returns with a select few novels published in the Indie world. I’ll Be Yours is her latest, and by Jove, it’s not one to be missed.
STORY: Harper O’Malley has scars of the physical and emotional variety. Her adoptive family is her rock since bringing her home at age nine; they love and accept her. Now, as a teenager, her safe place is about to shatter her into a million pieces. Her father, the man she admires so, becomes the center of a scandal when he’s found out to be having an affair. As the football coach for a prestigious college program, Coach O’Malley’s social life is cause for immediate dismissal and Harper’s withdrawal from her father and the rest of her family which includes, mom Cristy and brothers Michael and Cole.
I'll Be Yours, by Jenny B. Jones | Book Review
Despite the emotional upheaval, Harper finds herself relying on high school football star Ridley Estes. Perceived as the local “bad boy,” Harper keeps her distance from him, only it turns out in order to obtain the scholarship he needs, Ridley needs a tutor and Harper needs lessons in how to snag her dream boy’s attention. Whether she likes it or not, Harper is about to discover so much more about Ridley… and in the end, his reputation just might prove her wrong.
Ah, contemporary bliss. Let me count the ways I love you, dear Story. There are so many, knowing where to begin isn’t so much the challenge as knowing where to end. Typical to a Jones novel, she liberally sprinkles the book with darling humor that make you laugh-out-loud because the particular brand of happy she consistently spreads is that one bright spot of sunshine a reader chases. Coupled with this is a deep, poignant story I didn’t expect because I went into this novel “blind.” I knew it had something to do with football, there’d be romance and its cover bore the name of Jenny B. Jones. That's all I need.
I think God speaks to us all differently, and I heard him first in the music. - Jenny B. Jones
The heroine Harper (who, by the way has a great name) isn’t the average contemporary YA leading lady. No, Harper has a messy past, a past that leaves her guarded and careful. She doesn’t welcome forms of physical affection, and struggles with ways of connecting with the boy she crushes on (a boy who needs three names just to “contain all the wonder” of him). This is where Ridley’s particular set of skills come in handy and with it, a series of events are set in motion that will rework Harper’s heart.
If you’re looking for something to compare this to, it does remind me of the adaptation of The DUFF. Not to slight this novel, while the surface is similar (a boy helping a girl capture the interest of her crush), this is where the similarities stop. I’ll Be Yours is about forgiveness, and the healing that leads to forgiveness. It’s about a boy and a girl discovering who they are as they step up and into a new phase of this crazy thing called life. Though the final chapter completes this story with grace, I admire that there is also an open-ended quality to it allowing the reader to assume what they will, but enjoy the warmth the conclusion wraps us up in.
Sincere thanks to the author Jenny, and Rel for providing a complimentary copy of this book for reviewing purposes.
Romance, Cozy, Young Adult I'll Be Yours was such an awesome read, I completely devoured it. It has just the right amount of humour and fluff, with a tinge of drama and tragedy - and it hit me right in the feels. Romance, Cozy, Young Adult Not my favourite book, I should learn to read what a book is about before buying it.
This book was simply okay. Romance, Cozy, Young Adult
The day Andrew Levin arrives at Washington High, Harper O’Malley knows he’ll make the perfect starter boyfriend. The school’s newest band geek is totally in Harper’s league, yet completely out of this late-bloomer’s reach. Between fitting in with a new family, scoring the first chair in band, and rescuing dogs for the local animal shelter, Harper’s never had the opportunity to hone her dating skills. But even though Harper’s love life is far from perfect, she’s got the perfect plan.
Harper knows she’s insane to agree to tutor Ridley Estes, a notorious heartbreaker and the star of her high school’s football team—but in exchange, he’s offered to school her in the game of love. Just when she sees promise with her crush, a football scandal rocks her family, her town, and Ridley’s entire future. Harper suddenly has everything to lose—her family, friends, and even her heart. When the dust of the scandal settles, nothing will be the same. Including the girl who asked the most popular jock to teach her about love. I'll Be Yours
Jenny B. Jones ß 7 review
5 stars
I just loved this book...so, so much.
Harper wants a boyfriend, and only one will do: the new boy in school, Andrew Levin. The problem is that Andrew is totally out of Harper’s league, and she has no idea how to get him to notice her. Enter Ridley, popular high school football jock. He needs help with tutoring to get his grades up, and she needs lessons on how to get a guy to notice her. They strike a deal and the lessons commence….until a major scandal hits Harper and her family and her world turns upside down.
I liked everything about this book. I liked every single word written. I loved the banter between Harper and Ridley. I loved the emotions that the author portrays in her YA characters. I loved getting into Harper’s head as she makes sense of her changing world. I don’t think I’ve felt as connected to a character as I have to Harper. Her reactions to her problems are so realistic and on point for her character and personality. She is not a whiny MC, but she has an inner strength that grows and matures as the story goes on.
On the flip side, there are some cheesy moments…this is YA after all. The first 20%ish of the book tends to have some cheesy moments, but it gets more serious as the story goes on.
Overall, I laughed and I cried (happy and emotional tears), and I fell completely in love with all the characters. I love a good coming of age story, and I’ll Be Yours hit the nail on the head. This is not a light, fluffy read. Yes, it does have a HEA-ish ending, but it’s the getting there that makes it all worthwhile. I highly recommend! Romance, Cozy, Young Adult Jenny B. Jones is one of my go to authors when it comes to funny and endearing stories. I can always guarantee that I'll close the last chapter with a smile on my face! This delightful story is no different whatsoever. But make no mistake that with all the sweet moments comes some really hard things these characters are dealing with. It's not an easy road for any of them, but oh so worth it to journey to the final page.
I loved Harper from the first. She's riddled with doubts and fears and unknowns, so much of her thoughts reminded me of myself at different periods of my life! Her strength though, knows no bounds, which she learns over the course of events that suddenly get thrown in her path. And her resilience and sense of humor get her through some heavy realizations and decisions. Because her past is tough and she soon finds out her present isn't all happiness and rainbows either. But she deals. She determines to muddle her way through all the yuck somehow and I loved her all the more for it.
Then comes Ridley into her life and oh my! Talk about a swoony hero! Those two makes some great chemistry together, let me tell you. :) But the beauty found in their friendship is how they learn to support each other. Because Ridley is battling some hard as well and needs someone to help shoulder the burden. They seek to build on the foundation of mutual acceptance and caring they find in each other, a feeling which surprises them both. And oh how good they are for one another! Plus their banter is hilarious. Ms. Jones writes some of the best banter between characters of any writer I know!
A story with lots of heart, as well as several thought-provoking moments, this book is not to be missed. Especially if you adore a cute romance and characters who make you want to reach in the pages and make everything all better. Certainly worth a few hours of your time! :)
**I received a complimentary copy from the author in exchange for my honest review. Romance, Cozy, Young Adult I really loved this story! I will forever be on the campaign that Jenny B Jones books need to be a movie or a TV show. Cause, child... I would definitely watch it every week :-). The woman knows how to combine humor and drama like a symphony. This book made me feel all the feels.
The book really took on some pretty heavy issues than in her previous novels. But JBJ's humor is threaded throughout the story. I think Harper was my fav with her dog emancipation ways. I love her voice in this story. I thought she was sassy and funny. But she also had a sweet heart and real vulnerable side of her as well. There were a few parts about her past that were just heart wrenching.
And Ridley Estes... oh my! He was definitely a swoon worthy character! I can not say enough good things about this dude. I loved the way he treated Harper. I love the banter between Haper and Ridley, I was always looking forward the scenes with the two of them. And the kissing scene was the most sweet and romantic thing I have read! I'm still fanning myself. I kept thinking where was this guy when I was in high school, lol.
Oh!! and I totally loved the relationship between Mavis and Harper! Mavis reminded me of Maxine Simmons from In Between (A Katie Parker Production) . I loved all the witty quips they would toss back and forth to each other.
This book was not only a great for YA, I believe both teens and adults would love this book.
My only problem with this book is that it ran out of pages for me to keep reading ;-)
P.S. My only wish is I hope that there could be a spinoff book about Harper's parents. 'Cause I just want to know more about them and the future of their relationship. That would be interesting to see. Hopefully Ms. Jones reads this. (Crossing fingers). :-)
Romance, Cozy, Young Adult I don't read as much YA as I used to, but there are a few authors whose new books I don't miss, and this one one of them. I love the first person POV of Harper, who is completely overwhelmed by the circumstances of her family life. I thought her character's background of being a foster child adopted into her family as an older child was so interesting, and it explained how vulnerable she is and how that insecurity manifests itself. She definitely is a study in contrasts since she does have a confident persona, especially when standing up for her family and friends... and rescuing random abused dogs and animals. The unusual mannerisms and details of Harper made me completely immersed in the book. The slow revelation that Ridley is not as he seems was brilliant and shifted the dynamics of their friendship throughout the story. They challenged and supported each other in facing fears and overcoming struggles, but it is their fragile hearts that have the biggest obstacle to overcome- trust.
(Thank you to the author for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review) Romance, Cozy, Young Adult hardcore skimmed somewhere after 60% oops
I had this EPIC roast i was mentally preparing for this book but when i sat down and attempted to write it, it was like going through my biggest nightmare and i just blacked-out bc even I am not that much of a masochist
so, to make this short.....
...gather every terrible trope you could ever think of, throw it together with some cringe writing for 300+ pages and look at //that// you got yourself this book.
spontaneous buddy read with my angel face love muffin
idek why the heck we're reading this, this is all sana's fault 😂😂😂 Romance, Cozy, Young Adult