Read Your Writes Book Reviews: Guest Post & Giveaway ~ BREAKING THE ICE by Julie Cross

The second book in the Juniper Falls series from NY Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Julie Cross, perfect for fans of Miranda Kenneally and Abbi Glines.

Opposites really do attract….

Haley Stevenson seems like she’s got it all together: cheer captain, “Princess” of Juniper Falls, and voted Most Likely to Get Things Done. But below the surface, she’s struggling with a less-than-stellar GPA and still reeling from the loss of her first love. Repeating her Civics class during summer school is her chance to Get Things Done, not angst over boys. In fact, she’s sworn them off completely until college.

Fletcher Scott is happy to keep a low profile around Juniper Falls. He’s always been the invisible guy, warming the bench on the hockey team and moonlighting at a job that would make his grandma blush. Suddenly, though, he’s finding he wants more: more time on the ice, and more time with his infuriatingly perfect summer-school study partner.

But leave it to a girl who requires perfection to shake up a boy who’s ready to break all the rules.

Julie's tips for surviving high school:

1) Take the ACT/SAT (or foreign equivalent) in 9th grade. Seriously. Do it. Don’t put it off until Junior year (or senior year like me). If you aspire/aspired to be a college athlete, wouldn’t it be weird if someone said wait until Junior year to join the team and actually test your ability in a game situation? There are too many myths, anxieties, and pressures around these tests to let it build for three years. Don’t let a stupid test hold you back or keep you from enjoying high school.

2) Join clubs and groups that interest you! Even if it’s to try something you’ve never tried before. You might find new friends in a place of shared passions!

3) Befriend a teacher or two. Teachers are real people, they don’t climb into a closet after the final bell and unplug themselves. They have oodles of advice and experience to offer. And down the road it will come in handy to have someone who really knows you as a person writing that letter of recommendation on your behalf.

4) Work. There is no better way to clear up myths about what it takes to survive in the “real world” than getting out there. Even if it’s just for the summer.

5) If you have the opportunity or resources available to you, take at least one college/university class while in high school. Spending all day, every day for four years with your same-age peers can mess with your perspective. Community college classes allow you to experience a more diverse learning environment, being a student alongside people twice or even three times your age.

6) Make a conscious choice to be kind. Be open minded. Allow those around you to feel physically and emotionally safe and no matter who you are in high school or how difficult things get for you, you’ll look back on it and know that you were your best self.

Purchase Breaking the Ice from:

The Juniper Falls Series:

Julie Cross is a NYT and USA Today bestselling author of New Adult and Young Adult fiction, including the Tempest series, a young adult science fiction trilogy which includes Tempest, Vortex, Timestorm (St. Martin's Press). She's also the author of Letters to Nowhere series, Whatever Life Throws at You, Third Degree, Halfway Perfect, Chasing Truth, Off the Ice and many more to come! Julie Cross was a longtime resident of central Illinois but has recently moved her entire family across the country to continue her academic studies at Stanford University.

Places to find Julie Cross:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page

You can follow the Breaking the Ice Blog Tour here.