Sidelined Audiobook By Kara Bietz cover art

Sidelined

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Sidelined

By: Kara Bietz
Narrated by: Jason Keller
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An emotional YA romance about small town secrets, high school football, and broken hearts.

Julian Jackson has a short to-do list for his senior year at Crenshaw County High School in Meridien, Texas: football, football, and more football. He knows he's only got one chance to earn a college scholarship and make it out of his small town, and keeping his head down, his grades up, and his cleats on the field is that one chance. And then Elijah Vance walks back into his life, throwing all of his carefully-laid plans into a tailspin.

Elijah and Julian used to be best friends, maybe even on their way to something more than just friends. But three years ago, Elijah broke into the school to steal money from the coach's office, and Julian was the one who turned him in. After that, Elijah and his family disappeared without a trace. And now he's back, sitting at Julian's grandmother's kitchen table. But time and distance haven't erased all of their feelings, and Elijah knows that he finally has a chance to prove to Julian that he's not the same person he was three years ago. But with secrets still growing between them and an uncertain future barreling towards them, it may be harder to lean on each other than they thought.

©2021 Kara Bietz (P)2022 Tantor Difficult Situations Family & Relationships Friendship LGBTQ+ Literature & Fiction Romance Sports Fiction Heartfelt

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This was a cute story, fun characters, and the narrator was hilarious. The accent and voices were charming.
But that ending? There needed to be more. Or at least a follow up.

Good story, what was that ending?

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I loved the difference between Elijah and Julian’s voice bye I love Elijah’s accent. ALSO KHOLEY OR COLEY???? which one is it yall

lol

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Did I like the story? It was okay. Would I read it again? No. There was more time spent on back story than actual real worth while story telling. If you’re looking for anything more than 2 kisses you’re not in luck and that’s the approximate amount btw.

A slow burn

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I love this book. It has such a cute dive story. There is nothing i would change. I just wish it said who won the Taylor game.

AMAZING

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Such an amazing book. I enjoyed reading every bit of it and I loved the parallels between the characters that are shown later in the book. The pacing for Julian and Elijah was just perfect. I found that the amount of fluff, angst, and development in their relationship was wonderfully pieced together. The world building was good, and it felt like other characters really had a part in the story. It may not be tear jerking, but it sure did influence my feelings throughout the book. From being nervous for the characters, to being anxious, and even just pure bliss from the fluff. I recommend this book for anyone looking for a decently long LGBT story between to males with a well-paced slow burn.

A Wonderful Read

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This story was okay, and I liked the setting and the characters in it, but there’s a few glaring issues I have with it. Firstly, the dialogue leaves a little bit to be desired; this just doesn’t sound like how these characters would speak, at least amongst the younger ones. Secondly, and I say this as a LGBTQIA+ person living in the south, there is no small town in Texas or the entire south that would be this okay with people - especially football players - being “out since the 7th grade” or even more shocking, a church pastor being openly gay and married to another man. It’s just not something, at least at this point in time, I could fathom as being a realistic depiction of events. Maybe I’m missing the point about this book not trying to be realistic, but if that’s the case, a lot in this book would have to be changed in order to conform to that rule. Other than those reasons, the book was a little bit predictable, which I’m fine with, but was overall just an OK read.

Meh, it’s Okay?

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