Plot

When Cate’s parents derail her perfect NYC life with their monumentally ill-timed divorce, she kind of loses it.

By the time she gets it together, she’s in Miami with no friends and none of the classes and activities she imagined for her senior year of high school. So, she decides to blow it all up. Do something that defies everyone’s expectations.

A chance encounter with an EMS crew at the scene of an accident leads her to start training as an EMT while riding the city ambulances at night. Admittedly, she doesn’t understand any of this world. Not the people, not the rules, not the sense of humor. But she hangs in and surprises herself with some previously unknown talents and even a little gut instinct.

The more EMS takes over her life, the more she questions whether going back to New York and back to her old life is really what she wants. Until her complicated relationship with Adrian, a high school classmate and fellow EMT, leads her to take bigger and bigger risks to find the life she was meant to lead.

Together they try to figure it all out—high school, friends, parents, the future… and how to be an EMT and not kill anyone.

Book Review

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy!

I wouldn’t necessarily classify this as new adult, I think it’s pretty firmly in the young adult category.

Cate is uprooted during her senior year of high school after her parents have divorced. Her mom has taken her from NYC to Miami. On her first day she’s already garnered the attention of popular boy Adrian, who punches out one of his friends after he makes a joke about Cate killing herself.

After this incident Cate’s mom makes her join an afterschool activity at a local horse camp. It’s there that she witnesses an incident where an ambulance is called. Once the ambulance gets there she notices Adrian as one of the EMTs. Cate decides her parents aren’t the only ones who can blowup her life and she decides to shake things up by joining the Junior EMS program.

The program ends up changing her perspective on life and what she wants out of it. The story is really a coming of age about breaking out of your expected path.

In all honesty it was a good book, but I think it would have been stronger without the romantic storyline. Adrian honestly just felt like fodder and it just didn’t feel fleshed out to. I felt the ending was realistic and I enjoyed the friendships she made along the way, I just felt like the story could have explored Cate’s familial relationships and future more.

****SPOILERS BELOW*****

On one of the first calls Cate is riding on as the third she witnesses what is obviously a case of police brutality at the local police station. Adrian had been with the team who had earlier responded to the initial call during or after the arrest. This whole incident is barely mentioned and when it is obviously very serious. Later on in the book when Cate is riding with Rodriguez, they respond to another call that is again very clearly police brutality. At this point why would she have not like questioned Adrian? This is supposed to be his favorite EMT to ride with and she clearly turns a blind eye or something to these incidents. Like Adrian has no problem with this? Or are we to believe he never noticed? What? This was just so unbelievable it really ruined the story for me.