Blaze by Laurie Boyle Crompton
Source: Won from Sourcebooks Fire
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Series: -
Edition: Paperback, 309 pages
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Purchase: Amazon
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Rating: 5/5
Be still my geeky heart! Blaze is the best anti-love story I’ve ever read…it’s also the only one I’ve ever read, but I’m positive that it would still remain among the top 3 even if I had read others. It’s not often that a book boasts having a legitametly geeky main character and Blaze definitely manages to pull it off.
Blaze is an artistic high school girl who loves comic books and has a serious thing for Mark, who she goes to school with and also coaches her younger brother’s soccer team. He seems nice and swoon worthy, but after a few moments of chemistry everything goes a bit wrong. The story starts from the beginning and we get to see how Blaze navigates through the things mentioned in the blurb, and don’t worry even though a good portion of the plot is mentioned above it doesn’t really spoil the actual story.
It was such a joy to see a girl main character who loves comics and has a connection the superheroes in them, even as the geeky world grows it still seems a bit rare to have one in the forefront in books. Blaze has a great sense of humor and the way she describes things really shows off her quirky personality, and shows her ability to hope for the best even when things don’t seem to be in her favor. Her journey from being a slightly lovesick teen to a woman who can honestly say that she’s happy no matter what people may say about her is one that I was fully invested in and I couldn’t help but root for her. I loved the younger brother, Josh, and his group of friends. It’s really awesome that Blaze and her brother have such a great relationship and I adored the fact that she really took the time to be in his life. They had a really awesome dynamic.
As fun as this novel is it does touch on some serious topics that I feel are addressed in a real way that everyone can recognize. The biggest is bullying both in person and on social media, and just what effect that I can have on a young persons life. It’s not something that should be taken lightly and definitely shouldn’t be ignore, and I think that Compton really touched on it in a great way.
This is one of my favorites for the year and has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf.
 - Laurie Boyle Crompton)