Junk Miles (A Brenna Blixen Novel #2) - Liz Reinhardt

Brenna Blixen has the perfect boyfriend. He's sweet, sexy, loyal, and sure that Brenna is the best thing that's ever happened to him. But being the perfect girlfriend isn't as easy as Brenna thought it would be, and the pressure that comes with trying to be Jake's everything is beginning to weigh on her. When her mother surprises her with a trip to Paris over winter break, she's torn. She anticipated spending her vacation snuggling with Jake Kelly, ice-skating, drinking cocoa, and relaxing...but what girl in her right mind would turn down a trip to Paris?

Things only get more confusing when she winds up unexpectedly and unavoidably thrown into Saxon Maclean's

Brenna is determined to figure it all out, even if it means making some of the hardest decisions of her entire life. She also learns that every single thing she does has rippling repercussions, some that fill her with total regret. By the time she figures out what her heart truly wants, she realizes that she may not be able to have it after all.

Team Jake is back and I’m still crushing on Jake! *sigh* 

So, we pick up in this book shortly after we have left off and it’s Christmas time.  Brenna’s mom has not so subtly been telling Brenna that she doesn’t want her settling down and getting too serious with one boy, and that one boy would be JAKE KELLY!!! (I’m still booing Brenna’s mom).  So in all her control freakery, she buys her daughter a plane ticket to Paris (a city Brenna has always wanted to see) under the story that it’s for her teaching job at the college.  Okay, so maybe the school is sending them (other professors and their kids as well) but it’s not why they are going, and I’m as sure of it as Brenna! 

Jake is a super supportive boyfriend who never wants Brenna to miss out on any opportunities and fully encourages her to go to Paris and have the best time with her mom.  Unfortunately, what Jake doesn’t know is that his ex-best friend and the other guy Brenna was crushing on, Saxon Maclean (whose mom is also a teacher) is going to be on the trip (in her defense neither did Brenna).   

Let me just say, while I tried to channel my inner sixteen year old, I still didn’t get it.  I mean yes, Saxon is sexy and smart and all that but you have the perfect boyfriend.  He loves you, you love him…why on earth would you mess things up? WHY!!!!!!!!??????!!!!!???????????? Oh Brenna how you frustrated me! 

But consequences of our actions is something Brenna learned to have to deal with and live with because a hottie sweet guy like Jake Kelly is not going to stay single forever just because you decided to see what was really there with Saxon.  And also, what are the effects long term of trying to be with someone like Saxon (especially when you are used to someone like Jake).   

Okay, so I get it, she’s only sixteen and she is going to make mistakes…but I can’t help but feel for my boy Jake! And I can’t say that I don’t blame him for his lack of enthusiasm when Brenna returns to face the music, even if he is going out of his way to make her jealous.   

So with prom season just around the corner, whose arm with Brenna be holding onto? Or will she be holding on to any arm at all?  

And what about that one secret that Saxon told Brenna, it makes all the difference in the world Jake belongs to…will she tell him? Or will she continue to keep it just between her and Saxon? Can she afford to tell him, and risk his reaction? Can she afford not to tell him and have him find out that she lied…again? Ahhhh!!!! 

Liz Reinhardt, you are killing me! I have got to know if Jake & Brenna are going to live happily ever after, but seeing as they are only sixteen and seventeen…I have a feeling I’m not going to find out anytime soon!

 

You do get bonus points for referencing Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas, one of my all-time favorites! :)