(Review) Shut Out

Title: Shut Out
Author: Kody Keplinger
Pages: 288
Publisher: Poppy
Pub Date: September 2011

Source: I recieved a copy of this book for my honest review.

About the book:
Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it’s a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy’s car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend’s attention.

Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players’ girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won’t get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don’t count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming.

This is Kody’s second book. Her first book The DUFF was one I had to get last year at BEA and I was really lucky to have gotten it and read it on the train ride home and I really enjoyed it. So I was really happy that the buzz I heard about the book before hand lived up to its reputation.

So, when I heard that Kody had this book coming out I quickly added to my wishlist and was really happy when it came in the mail. Kody did not disappoint. I read this book rather quickly and enjoyed it.

I should start off by saying that this is a stand alone book and is no way related to The Duff.

Lately I have been reading alot of stories about a retelling with a modern twist and this book falls into that category. This is the retelling of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, a classic Greek play about Lysistrata and her attempt to end the Peloponnesian War by persuading the women of the warring nations to withhold sex from their husbands in order to force peace negotiations and eventually the men give in and it ends.  I have to admit that I have never read this play and I have to admit I am kind of curious now.

So how does this relate to the book you ask? Well, we all know that schools have rivals with other schools but Hamilton High is different because they have rivals within the school. The boys soccer and football team are at each other. This has been going on for ten years now and its being passed down from generation to generation and it seems that this time both will stop at nothing to win.

Enter Lissa. She is the girlfriend of Randy and he is on the quarterback of the football time and she is getting fed up with not being Randy’s top choice and competing for his attention because he seems to be obsessed with getting revenge on the soccer team. Realizing that they only way to get through to these boys is to without hold sex. Lissa rallies the other girlfriends and they all pledge to not do anything in hopes that it will end the rivalry. The girls think that this strike will be over before it even begins because well boys will be boys right? Wrong!

This seems to bring the girls closer together and new and old friendships are forming. As for the boys it takes them awhile to figure out what is going on but once they do they try everything to get the girls attention apart from ending the rivalry that is.

Right off I have to say that Lissa’s boyfriend, Randy bothered me and he just seemed to rub me the wrong way. Not sure what it was at first, if it was because he put his rivalry before Lissa or that he basically could care less about her but after what he did at the dance I realized then that he was a jerk and was happy she found out about him when she did.

I have to admit its been awhile since I had a book guy crush and right from the moment he entered the picture I knew I would love Cash and I did. He was so sweet and flirty that I actually loved him and wished I was in Lissa’s place. They had chemistry from the get go and you had to see where it would go and end.

I enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading more of Kody’s upcoming books.

You can follow Kody Keplinger’s Blog and on her site.

Thanks to Hachette Canada for sending me this book.