Blog Tour & Giveaway: Risking It All by S.M. Koz

Risking It All
S.M. Koz
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: June 18th 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

A high-achieving teen who’s determined to become a fighter jet pilot is matched up with an accused criminal at an elite military boarding school in SM Koz’s YA novel, Risking It All.

Paige knows exactly what she wants—to graduate from Wallingford Academy and become a pilot in the US Air Force. She’s inherited her father’s no-nonsense attitude and whip-smart intelligence, all of which have made her the perfect Wallingford cadet.

Wallingford Academy is the last place in the world Logan wants to be. But after his girlfriend borrows his car and commits a crime, Logan takes the fall and ends up there with hopes of striking a decent plea bargain. For him, graduation can’t come soon enough.

When Paige is asked to mentor Logan, it’s the perfect opportunity to prove her leadership skills—but she doesn’t account for the feelings that start to develop or the baggage from Logan’s past which could threaten both of their futures.

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My Review:

4 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Romance, Teen--

Paige has been the best cadet she could possible be at her military boarding school, on the fast track to a career in the armed forces just like her father. When she is assigned to peer mentor the new delinquent student Logan, she feel she may be in over her head with him. She could never have predicted the level of sarcasm and eye rolls contained in one lazy boy but she is determined to whip him into shape. Logan strives to spend his days playing video games with his friends, never expecting himself to end up at a military boarding school to avoid prison. Hopefully the two can survive their interaction...

I think my favorite thing about this story was the personal growth that we get to see in Logan. He went from a lazy boy with no ambitions to a hardworking almost man who wanted to prove himself and strive for more. I wanted to cheer him on every time he made the right choice in a situation, including spending his free time running laps. It was interesting to see that he went from doing the right thing because he thought it would make his court case easier to choosing the right thing because that is what his brain/body wanted to do. I think Logan was my favorite character overall and even when he wanted more he still kept his good heart and sense of humor.

Keep in mind that I liked Paige a lot too, she was the straightest of arrows with the best of moral compasses. I appreciated Paige's steadfastness with the code of ethics, her lack of ability to lie led to the most interesting of situations. There was no lying to get out of trouble or self preservation, instead she told told it like it was with no guile, regardless of how the story would play out.

Other than holding hands, it’s like usual and doesn’t even seem like we just agreed to be more than friends. I guess that’s the best type of relationship, though— one that so effortlessly morphs from friends to more you don’t even notice it happening.

While I would easily classify this as YA contemporary romance, there was only a little actual romance on the pages. We watched the characters go from almost enemies (mainly on Logan's part) to really good friends over the course of time, with the romance only slowly building towards the end of the book. I loved watching their relationship unfold page by page, allowing me (and each other) time to get to know and understand the characters. Also I appreciated the realism that is the ending, with a HEA- for now, since this is only high school after all.

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Author Bio:

SM Koz was born in Michigan, but moved to North Carolina for college and never left. She enjoys traveling, camping, hiking, photography, reading, spending time with foster kids who call her house home, and learning new things. When she’s not creating online training for pharmaceutical companies (her day job) or writing, Koz can be found at the local community college taking courses on various topics ranging from digital art to HTML to desktop publishing. SM Koz has written six novels. Although her stories differ by genre, ranging from contemporary realism to sci-fi to fanfiction, two things they all have in common are a young or new adult focus and romance. If you’d like to learn more about SM Koz, check her out on social media.

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