The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott
The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott
Published by Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
Sarah and Brianna have been best friends since kindergarten, and although Sarah’s always been in gorgeous Brianna’s shadow, Brianna has been a faithful friend all those years and has never let Sarah down. But now, Sarah has a crush on Brianna’s boyfriend, Ryan, and even though Sarah liked him first, and she knows Ryan feels the same, she knows she is the worst friend in the entire world. How can she even think of betraying her best friend like this? But feelings are feelings, and when Sarah’s crush turns into something more, her friendship with Brianna might never recover.
I’ve long been a fan of Elizabeth Scott, and this was one of her backlist titles I randomly spotted at the library that I finally got to. I don’t have a ton to say about The Unwritten Rule, but I did enjoy it, and it lived up to the standards I’ve sort of held Elizabeth Scott to over the years (because she is awesome).
While the story of one girl falling for a friend’s boyfriend has been done before in YA, Scott’s take on it is fresh and definitely held my interest. The thing is, as a reader, you end up rooting for Sarah. Although Sarah doesn’t realize it, Brianna is not a good friend to her and basically stole Ryan right out from under Sarah when she was just developing feelings for him. But at the same time, you end up rooting for Brianna because as it turns out, her home life sucks and it’s very clear why she is such a bad friend – she never learned how to be a compassionate, decent person. And although you don’t think it possible, you feel for Ryan too, because he genuinely likes Sarah and wants to be with her, but he is a good guy and doesn’t want to hurt Brianna in the process. It’s quite a love triangle.
What surprised me is that Scott didn’t choose to end the book how I expected she would, which I like. Unexpected endings work well for me, as long as they make sense in the context of the story, which this one did. I continue to recommend Elizabeth Scott as an excellent YA author, and The Unwritten Rule is just one more example of how talented she is!
I like how each of the characters is someone to root for even though rooting for them all is sort of conflicting, LOL.
I like it when characters are complex, and it sounds like these are. I am not big on books about infidelity, even when it happens in the YA world, but I might give the one a try because it sounds as if the reasons that this situation exists is complicated and well fleshed out. I really liked your review today, and think that this would be an interesting book to discuss with you. Thanks, Heather!
This sounds true to life. I’m curious about the ending. I’ll have to look for one of Scott’s books.
I enjoy her books too. This is one that I haven’t read!
Heather, You do such a great job reviewing the YA genre, I think that you should somehow target your audience. I am sure there are must be young girls and librarians that would like to read your reviews but don’t even know they exist. As a teacher, I am always looking for appropriate reading material for my young readers.
How can you widen your scope so people can find you ? Do people get paid to review books? What I am trying to say is, you are an awesome blogger, I enjoy your perspective and think the YA readers would like to know about you. How can we make that happen?
A big fan,
Christine
I keep meaning to read one of her books. I’m sure I even have one on my Kindle. This one sounds like a good one to keep in mind for reading as well.