Surviving Adam Meade
By: Shannon Klare
Published Year: 2018
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Pages: 256
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Seventeen-year-old Claire Collins has a plan: get into college and leave North Carolina behind. What she doesn’t have is an idea for how to get rid of the local football star and womanizer extraordinaire — Adam Meade, who she can’t even avoid (despite many efforts), because Claire’s dad is the high school football coach.
Seventeen-year-old Adam Meade never fails. He always gets what he wants… until he meets Claire, the new girl who leaves him unnerved, pissed off, and confused. But there’s something about her that he just can’t resist…
First Impressions
If there was ever a book written specifically for me, it would be this one. When I first saw the book it was described as being targeted towards fans of Friday Night Lights and I am a huge football fan. The cover also called to me strongly. The colors are perfect and it makes me want to crawl inside of it and live there.
What I thought
This book was everything I wanted it to be.
Claire Collins has just moved to a new school at the beginning of her senior year. Her dad is the football coach and all she wants to do is keep her head down, finish the year, and get into Auburn. Adam Meade is the star quarterback with a chip on his shoulder. He is used to getting everything and everyone he wants. When Claire is the first girl who doesn’t fall for him, he isn’t quite sure how to handle her.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you will know that my favorite romance trope is hate to love. Combine that with my love for football and you have the ingredients for my perfect novel. Now, that means this book already had a lot to live up to based on its premise alone and I have to say, Klare did a great job.
Claire is a strong female lead. She has a good relationship with her family, has lived through heartbreak, doesn’t take any shit from anyone, and knows exactly what she wants in life. Adam is the stereotypical arrogant high school quarterback who doesn’t know what to do when someone doesn’t like him. He does have two great friends, Riley and Tate, who make him more likeable. I enjoyed the banter that Claire had with her family and with Adam. It was a bit Gilmore Girl’s-esque in that she always had the perfect response.
I appreciated that there was dimension to the story with some drama in both of their pasts’. However, Adam mentions multiple times living with his Grandma and Claire takes a long time to ask him about where his parents are and why he lives with his Grandma. It seemed to me like something she would’ve been curious out a little earlier.
From what I could tell, the football side of the story was also realistic. One of my friends is often reading stories that revolve around baseball and we often discuss how frustrating it can be when the author appears to have not done any research by making obvious mistakes. It can really disrupt a book, but I didn’t find that in this story at all.
The relationships were all wonderful. I loved that Riley is a head cheerleader and is also the sweetest person. It was nice to divert from the stereotype of her being a bitch. I also loved Adam’s friend, and Riley’s boyfriend, Tate. He seemed like a little bit of a dofus at times, but very sweet. In addition to have genuine friendships, Claire’s relationships with her parents and brother were wonderful to read. Besides the animosity between Adam and Claire, everyone else got along and it balanced everything nicely.
While this book isn’t earth shattering, it is an enjoyable and fun book. I flew through it in 24 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. I would gladly read a sequel because I enjoyed both of the characters and their relationship. If you are a contemporary YA fan, I highly recommend checking out this book. It’s fun and brings you right back into the world of high school.