Taming the Rebel by Dawn Klehr

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Title: Taming the Rebel
Author: Dawn Klehr
Series: Endless Summer #3
Published by: Entangled: Crush
Release Date: August 14, 2017
Format: eARC
Pages: 198
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Rebel Hart should be at home taking care of her father after his breakup with his boyfriend, not tromping through the woods at summer camp. He’s had his heart broken beyond repair, and the way she sees it, there’s only one person to blame—the boyfriend’s son. So when that infuriatingly gorgeous quarterback turns up at the same camp, she plans to make him pay.

Justice Brody isn't happy about trading training camp for actual summer camp. But if he wants to stay on the football team, he has to show that he can be drama-free. He welcomes the anonymity that comes with summer camp...until he realizes the one girl who knows him better than anyone is there, too. Rebel is off-limits, impossibly beautiful...and trouble with a capital T. Still, he can’t stay away. And even as Rebel exacts her revenge, in several very embarrassing and painful ways, neither can she.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains pranks, adult language, and kisses that will make you wish for a summer romance of your own.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

3.5 stars — This one started off fairly strong, but petered out a teensy bit at the end for me.

Rebel was actually pretty hilarious throughout the story.  She was snarky and sassy, and just fun to be in the head of.  She reminded me a LOT of Isis from the Lovely Vicious series.  She had this slightly skewed view on reality, but she was a good kid in general.  I loved how growing up with gay fathers shaped her to try not to let insults get to her.  She wouldn’t be human if they never did, but in general she was very much okay with who she was and I admired that.  I thought she could have tried a wee bit harder to see things from Justice’s perspective, but overall I got her.

Justice was a conundrum.  He could be so sweet and swoony — I loved that he had this vicious case of impostor syndrome in some ways, where he still felt like the awkward social outcast even as he was the QB now.  And I totally felt for what he went through, and I *know* how that can affect you for a long time.  BUT.  But.  I…just was a bit bummed with how he handled being teased about his father.  Maybe not at the beginning, but I expected him to change faster…or maybe show that he was starting to change in the middle of the book.  I mean, at the end of camp it felt like he still hadn’t learned anything, and then he had a sudden turnaround.  It just wasn’t believable for me.

Now I did enjoy the two of them together.  They had great banter, great chemistry in other ways as well.  There were some sweet kissing scenes as well.

There were quite a few great secondary characters.  Loved Rebel’s Dad, he seemed kind of awesome.  Loved Aubrey, it was awesome to see Rebel have a supportive friend, but one who was straight with her.  And enjoyed the little hints of Eli as well.  Gray I could have done without.

So yeah, it was a solid YA, I just wanted a bit more growth to get to that finale.