Always awkward in her 5’10 frame, Melanie Reeves finds her
saving grace through basketball. Not only is she the varsity team captain,
she’s the pride of Coach Thompson, who holds the keys to a college scholarship.
Melanie has also found 'courtly' love with Will, Coach T's handsome,
ball-playing son. When Melanie is on the court, everything is perfect....until
she is forced to face an opponent who doesn't play by the rules.
Jordan Solano's power lies in her beauty and sex appeal.
Never afraid of breaking the rules, she engages in a scandalous flirtation with
the school's married basketball coach. But the flirtation quickly turns into
accusation, and Coach T's job and reputation are placed in jeopardy after
Jordan charges him with rape. Jordan's own reputation has the school
administration unwilling to believe her. That is, until she makes a startling
claim - she's not the only victim.
Suddenly, all eyes are on Melanie, and it isn't for her
amazing free-throws. A man's job, a girl's reputation, and her boyfriend's
entire world now rest in Melanie's hands. She has to decide: keep her secrets
and protect her future, or put an end to the lies...and lose everything.
My Review:
Nets & Lies by Katie Ashley is an extremely
heart-breaking and emotional book that I think every young adult, and even
parents with teenagers, needs to read. It will make you look at things a little
bit differently concerning rape, and might even encourage some tough
conversations with friends and family.
Nets & Lies follows two girls who are high school
seniors at the same school, but aren’t what anyone would call friends. Melanie
is the star basketball player who is considered a goody-goody. If any one
person could be described as Melanie’s polar opposite, it would be Jordan. Jordan
uses her body to flirt and seduce in order to get what she wants, and is having
an affair with a teacher.
WARNING – SPOILERS BELOW
Couch T is the girl’s basketball coach as well as Will’s
father, Melanie’s boyfriend. Coach T is always really tough on Will, but Will
confides in Melanie that his father is always boosting up how great he thinks
Melanie is.
You quickly find out that Coach T is the teacher that Jordan
is having a secret affair with. Jordan believes they are in love and that he
will soon leave his wife for her because she is the only one that can make him
happy.
After Melanie hits her head in the storage closet Coach T
sends the rest of the basketball team home and offers to let her rest in his
office. Shortly after Melanie starts feeling better Coach T forces himself on
her while telling her how much he loves her and wants her to ‘let him love her’.
Melanie goes into shock and doesn’t move while Coach T rapes her. Afterwards
she promises him that she will never tell anyone what happened.
Jordan shows up after Coach T rapes Melanie to have her
Monday afternoon hook-up with him. Once Jordan is in Coach T’s office he tries
to break things off with her. He confides in her that he is in counseling with
his wife for his sex addiction and that they are trying to work things out.
Needless to say, Jordan doesn’t take the breakup well when
she finds Melanie’s underwear in his futon. The next day she goes to the
Principal and claims Coach T has raped her. When no one in the administration
believes her she lets them know that she is not the only victim. She informs them that Coach T
also raped their star basketball player, Melanie.
When Melanie returns to school a few days later all hell has
broken loose and everyone is looking to her to help save Coach T, including her
boyfriend (Coach T’s son).
When Melanie returns and she has to answer to everyone concerning the claims that Coach T raped her, you have to wonder why Melanie didn’t just
tell everyone that Coach T did indeed rape her. While I have never been in any
kind of similar situation, I had to sit and picture myself in Melanie’s
position and wonder what I would have done.
Honestly, I can see that I might have also considered trying
keeping my mouth shut like Melanie did. When you take into account everything
Melanie had to worry about in confessing to the rape (her relationship with
boyfriend, people thinking she was lying and having to testify in court) you
might think it’s best to just try and forget it ever happened and move on.
However, like Melanie, I would probably break at some point.
When Melanie tries to be intimate and have sex with Will for
the first time, she has a complete breakdown and confesses to Will everything about his father raping her.
Meanwhile, Jordan is bullied and harassed at school and ends
up leaving the school to start over somewhere else. She also meets a new guy,
Nick, at the restaurant she works for. Jordan and Nick quickly start a
friendship, and for the first time Jordan has a non-sexual relationship with a
guy.
The book ends with Melanie and Jordan becoming friends, and
Coach T going to jail after he admits to raping Melanie to take a plea deal.
Jordan moves to New Jersey to be with Nick, and Melanie and Will get engaged
their first year in college.
I am really happy this book had a happily-ever-after for
Melanie and Will, and that they were able to overcome all of the issues
associated with his father having raped her. I think the way their relationship
was written about them being able to come together after Melanie's breakdown was really beautiful!
Find Katie Ashley:
Like Katie Ashley on Facebook
Follow Katie Ashley on Twitter @KatieAshleyLuv
Website: http://katieashleybooks.blogspot.com/
Find Katie Ashley:
Like Katie Ashley on Facebook
Follow Katie Ashley on Twitter @KatieAshleyLuv
Website: http://katieashleybooks.blogspot.com/
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