Jackie Howard’s life is meticulously organised with an important goal in mind. An excellent transcript, Princeton and then straight into her billionaire father’s business empire. And then her father, mother and glamourous older sister are suddenly… gone.

She has an uncle in New York City to look out for her but he decides she will be better away from all the memories that crush her daily. His solution is her mum’s friend, Katherine Walter. Who lives miles on a ranch in Colorado. With one girl and eleven boys!

Jackie doesn’t remember her mother’s friend and is horrified at the thought of living with so many boys. Their welcome is lukewarm at best, and she wonders how she will survive in her new home.

The quiet orderly life she had in her New York City apartment and private girl’s school is replaced by a house full of chaos, practical jokes, bets made on her, and public high school.

The Walter boys are a myriad of ages and hard to keep track of to begin with. One stands out though, showing off his lean muscled torso and staring at her with a blue eyed simmering gaze. Cole is popular at school with guys and girls seem to throw themselves at him daily. She’s warned about him but can’t deny her attraction to him.

She soon sees for herself the carnage Cole can create, and she tries to take a step back from him and her feelings. Another brother is much kinder, safer and much less infuriating.

A love story rising from terrible loss, and an upheaval of a teen girl’s life. Going from an inner city apartment of your family of four, to a rural ranch filled with fourteen strangers, is a huge shock to Jackie. Still reeling from the loss of her family in a terrible accident, Jackie is on unstable footing from the beginning of the novel.

It was heart-warming to watch her become a full fledged member of this pranking, raucous, strong sibling rivalry household, and fall in love too. The contrast between her past life to the new one gave a constant contrast for her to wrangle, making engaging reading.

The writing achieved it’s goal with me early as I was so cross with these Walter boys and their constant tricks and mayhem. But their acceptance of Jackie was all the more sweeter as the novel progressed.

Fun read. Will check out the Netflix series too.

Author – Ali Novak

Age – 13+

(2019, Sourcebooks, Family, Grief, Loss, Romance, Teen Angst, Friendships, School, Change, Contrast, Love, Indecision, Brothers, Secrets, Emotions)