In this dazzling debut novel, a pregnant teen learns the meaning of friendship—from the boy who pretends to be her baby’s father.

When the entire high school finds out that Hannah Shepard is pregnant via her ex-best friend, she has a full-on meltdown in her backyard. The one witness (besides the rest of the world): Aaron Tyler, a transfer student and the only boy who doesn’t seem to want to get into Hannah’s pants. Confused and scared, Hannah needs someone to be on her side. Wishing to make up for his own past mistakes, Aaron does the unthinkable and offers to pretend to be the father of Hannah’s unborn baby. Even more unbelievable, Hannah hears herself saying “yes.”

Told in alternating perspectives between Hannah and Aaron, Trouble is the story of two teenagers helping each other to move forward in the wake of tragedy and devastating choices. As you read about their year of loss, regret, and hope, you’ll remember your first, real best friend—and how they were like a first love.


Spoiler-free review!

I want to start by saying that I felt really weird reading this book at work. A book with so much sperm on it, people were looking at the cover like 'what are you reading?'. Except from the sperm, it has a nice bunch of colours on it though. 

Anyway, moving swiftly from the cover, I had to rate this one 3.5 stars. The reason I didn't rate it any higher was because I felt that it was a bit slow. Is that just me being impatient to find out what's wrong with Aaron? Probably, I wouldn't be surprised if that's why. The reason why he is how he is was quite unexpected though. When we got hints about his old best friend, I was understanding that something had happened to him but that? Poor guy. He's beating himself up over something that wasn't entirely his fault, and I felt so sorry for him. I did get a shock sometimes when he really stood up for himself, he had a bit of an angry side and it did come across as a bit scary, as some people shied away from him after that. Go Aaron!

He was quite an interesting character to read about, he was always keeping himself to himself, he wouldn't draw too much attention (well, until he agrees to pretend to be the baby daddy), but what he did was a very nice thing to do. He hardly knows this girl at that point, he sacrifices his reputation at a new school after leaving the old one on bad terms, and only to have his name dragged through the mud again. For Hannah. That's nice, and quite brave, and that's real friendship. They're all a bunch of animals at this school, seriously.

And speaking of the people at the school, Katie...



Seriously, what was this girls problem? She seems to have this need to be popular and to get with the "in crowd" only to have it fuck up for her. Well, it serves her right. You can't treat people like that. How she was with Hannah after being best friends for so long was just tragic. Leaking private conversations with the school, gossiping, starting fights and just being Captain Bitch. It did, at times, seem a bit over the top, I cant believe she'd do so many nasty things for such a petty reason really, another reason the rating was lowered a bit. I wasn't so sure it felt realistic. Why did she make her life such misery like that? Katie was a bit much. I do love how the "popular" people even ditched her and called her out on being a total asshat. Serves her right...

And them we have arsehole number 2 - Jason. Or Jay, whichever name you want to call him. He was just... urghhh. I felt his reaction to some things were quite authentic to how a guy his age would respond. As an important person in her life and as a family member, he was just a pile of wank. Unsupportive, obnoxious and selfish. 


#appropriategif

As a person who currently works in a nursing home for the elderly, I adored the moments in the care home. Aaron is so kind and selfless that he decides to spend his spare time at the old folks home, befriending a gentleman called Neville. Who is awesome. I love that guy, and considering they weren't related, they had a wonderful relationship together. Banter, laughs, and giving great advice and companionship to each other, as they both certainly needed it.

Hannah and Aaron's relationship was just wonderful though. They did have their ups and downs, a lot of friends do, but they ended up with this unbreakable bond and complete trust in each other. This book wasn't very romantic, it was more on the friendship side, and that was refreshing. Aaron was going through some tough things in his life and yet he still did as much as he could for this girl. Supportive, kind, caring and yeah, at times he can be frustrating and reserved, but he has his reasons. I think romance would of put a strain on the relationship, they worked very well as best friends and it was enough. I don't think either of them wanted that, they just wanted someone to be there for them, they needed support and they needed someone to confide in.

I did like Hannah, at the beginning, she has a reputation at the school, she has this image of a girl who gets about and someone who's "easy" but I do love how things come together for her. She really grew as a character. I think being pregnant matured her and she realised how important family and the people around her were. The social interactions were great, it seemed quite believable and it reminds me of my time at secondary school. There's always a pregnant one for a start...

People do give her a hard time and I am pleased about how she handled it, how she decided to keep the baby and go through with it. It's a tough decision to make, it's a complete life-changer and she's only fifteen years old. She's brave and she really does stand up for herself and won't take anymore crap. She used to but she decides that enough is enough. Good for you, Han! I like characters who grow a backbone.

It was interesting to see a book about teenage pregnancy, it's not something that I've seen much in the bookshop. We sometimes do see people having people having kids at a young age, and yeah it does make us think that they're throwing their life away. Kids having kids. it's frown upon but it still happens. We judge them but we don't know their situation. We don't really know what they're thinking and we don't know what their plans are, and this book was a good insight on how a girl in that position is thinking. One little mistake and one assumption "I'll just pull out" or "won't happen on my first time" and BAM! You're taught a lesson. You can still get pregnant.

Overall, this book is filled with emotions, drama, gossip, humour, important relationships between family and friends, and...a pregnant teenager. I think a lot of people will enjoy this one. Yeah at times it does seem a bit slow, I did find myself looking to see how much I had left sometimes, but keep going. It's quite a good read!



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Trouble by Non Pratt

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