Review: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Title: Shut Out
Author: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Poppy
Age Group: Young Adult
Category:  Contemporary romance
Release date: September 5th, 2011
Pages: 273 (ebook)
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Borrowed

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention

Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling...

It's official.  I can't hide it anymore.  I'm in love with Kody Keplinger.  When I first read The DUFF, it was everything I hoped it would be.  I think Shut Out may have been even better.  The story follows a senior in high school who's sick of competing for the attention of her boyfriend.  I would be too, if you knew that most of his thoughts and actions were based around what he'd do next to get the soccer team back for whatever prank they pulled last.  At her school, there's been a 10 year long rivalry between the soccer and football teams and as it turns out, Lissa isn't the only one sick of being ignored.

Lissa has a plan that includes e-mailing and meeting each of the girlfriends of the team members.  She creates a no-sex pact. Until the war comes to an end, each of the girls plan to hold out, believing that the plan will become successful since the boys are much more weak when it comes to sex (or lack thereof).  The funny thing is that it becomes quite a challenge for the girls as well.

I've seen some people rag on Kody because her books involve sex, but to me, it's very realistic.  I can relate, especially since- I'm not going to lie about it- sex was on my mind most of the time while I was a senior in high school.  She's a younger author around my age and she writes about what she knows.  I can understand why some people wouldn't enjoy it, but to me, it's what makes me want to dive into the stories she tells.

Cash was one of my favorite characters from the beginning.  I guess I just had these hopes that he would be a good guy in the end.  While struggling with the sex strike and Randy's slight loss of interest (after finding out why she was being a little distant), Cash seems to be the one she can't get off her mind.

All of the girls become closer the longer this strike lasts and they find out that they're not as alone as they'd think.  They might all have different struggles but they all do, in fact, have something they're struggling with.  Some even worry that they're weird or different and there's just something so comforting knowing that you're not alone.  Overall, I enjoyed that everyone was so realistic and understandable.  I also love that Kody's stories have easily reeled me in and kept me interested.  Sometimes we all need those light, fun reads.

P.S. This book has the most amazing scene ever.  Just saying.