Girls Love Travis Walker by Anne Pfeffer Published by Self-Published on March 15, 2013
Genres: New Adult
Format: ebook
Source: ARC
Purchase @ AMAZON or BN
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To nineteen-year-old high school dropout Travis Walker, women are like snowflakes–each one different, but beautiful in her own way.
He can charm any girl he meets, and yet down deep he fears he’ll always be a loser like his jailbird father. As the landlady threatens to evict him and his sick mother, Travis takes a job he hates and spends his evenings picking up girls at a nearby night spot.
When he enlists in a teen program at the local fire station, he finds out he’s amazing at it. Then he meets the smoking hot Kat Summers, enlists Kat’s friend Zoey to help him woo her, and falls in love for the first time ever.
But he keeps the details of his life secret. His girl will never love him back if she knows the truth about him….
Liezel’s Thoughts:
First off, I have to say that the book cover and synopsis does not do this story any justice at all. I thought that this would be about a conceited, immature young man partying it up in L.A. but what I found was Travis Walker isn’t any of those things at all. He is the total opposite of what I expected.
Girls Love Travis Walker is about a young man that seems to have the worst luck in life. As a nineteen year old, Travis is forced to prematurely become the adult in their family of two. Because of his dads mistakes not only is he now the sole provider but he also becomes the parent to his emotionally unstable mother. Despite all the trials sent his way Travis finds some positive things that motivate him to go on. When he hits rock bottom and those things are taken from him, he never loses hope that his luck may eventually change.
I absolutely adored this book . It is a very light and easy read that you can tackle within a couple hours. The beginning was a little on the slow side but when it picks up it becomes this amazing story of courage and strength. The best part of the book besides Travis himself is the very emotional and moving conclusion that I just had to read repeatedly. It’s just THAT perfect.
I thought this book deserved every award and nomination that it received. A definite must read for those looking for an awe-inspiring and heartwarming story.
The Verdict:
Excerpt:
Only fifteen minutes since I’d entered the halls of Perdido High School and already the beady eye of authority was upon me. I hadn’t even done anything wrong.
Yet.
“Travis!” Ms. Valenzuela called out to me from the door of the guidance office. Although she was getting old, maybe into her early forties, she hadn’t let herself go. She had great legs, which were hidden today by her lime green pants.
“Yo.” I loped over and unleashed a grin that combined sincere remorse for my failings with my irresistible charm.
She pursed her lips. “Don’t start with me, Travis.”
I led the way to her office and took my usual chair while she sat at the desk across from me. “New picture,” I said, nodding to the updated photo of her two daughters. “Kelsi and … Julianne, right?”
She struggled to keep back a smile. “Yes, Travis. Those are their names.”
“Fifth and seventh grade, right?”
“Yes, Travis.” Now she was smiling for sure.
Maybe it was my blue-green eyes, or maybe my granite abs, but I could always get women to smile at me.
Ms. Valenzuela opened my folder. “Six more absences since your last visit to my office. Plus numerous missed homework assignments. You’re this close to suspension.” She held up her thumb and index finger a millimeter apart.
“I have to work, Ms. Val,” I said. “Gotta get ahead, you know.” I had a promising position as a bus boy at Jake’s Burgers.
“How many hours are you working these days?”
“As many as I can get, whenever I can get ‘em.”
“You can’t cut back?” She knew she couldn’t push me that hard. My family’s sudden move to Los Angeles in November of my junior year, coupled with my erratic attendance at Perdido High, had screwed up my graduation credits. With all my former classmates in college, I was starting my senior year, again, at age nineteen.
“I can’t get weekend shifts at Jake’s,” I told Ms.Val.
She didn’t like me working there, but she should just be glad I wasn’t following in the path of my father, who knocked over a convenience mart a year ago and ended up in prison for armed robbery. Mom had gone to visit him, but I refused. He could rot there for all I cared.
“You’ve got one school year left to graduate. I want to see you get that high school diploma, Travis. Or a GED at least.” Between her fingers, she rolled a pen. It was the cheap kind the school district bought that wrote for about five minutes before it crapped out on you.
“Yeah, well, we’re about to get evicted,” I said, “so that’s kind of rearranged my priorities.”
Awards:
WINNER — Third Place for Fiction 2013 Indie Reader Discovery Awards
FINALIST— New Fiction 2013 National Indie Excellence Awards
Reviews:
“ ….the title of this book had me expecting something very like a teen romance. While there is romance aplenty in this wonderful novel, Girls Love Travis Walker is far more than that….
“Little did I know that what I was about to read would have such a huge impact on me…. This book hit me right in the heart.”
“I really loved Travis…. I cried and was scared with him.”
“This book will make you fall in love for so many reasons…”
