Book Review
Title: Textrovert by Lindsey Summers
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Rating: 2.75 Stars
I was immediately concerned picking up Textrovert because it is a Wattpad book which can never be good. I read fanfics on Wattpad back in the day and I can’t even go on the site now because it just makes me cringe. We are introduced to Keeley and her twin, Zach while they are at a fair where Keeley ends up losing her phone but finding it again before her brother heads off with the car. That night she gets a phone call from a boy named, Talon explaining they picked up each other’s phones by accident and they decide to deal with it the next day. However, Zach gets in trouble for driving drunk because Keeley wouldn’t answer his messages or calls and she realises Talon ignored them. She immediately messages him and even though he suggests the idea of forwarding each other’s messages and calls she initially rejects it because she was angry with Talon for now reason. I wouldn’t answer mystery phone calls from someone else’s phone even if I had it by mistake. Despite this Keeley tries to get Talon to agree but he is a jerk about it and they end up throwing down the gauntlet waiting for the other to break which was cringe worthy to read.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Keeley manages to convince Talon to forward her messages and calls after accidently speaking to his mother but this means the pair are beginning to text daily and speak to each other more often. One night, Talon calls her to inform her that Zach needs picking up from a party that he snuck out to even though he is supposed to be grounded for drinking drunk. Talon makes a comment about Zach using her when she is leaving to pick him up and we can see this in how he constantly makes demands of her because according to him she has nothing better to do. Zach is constantly asking for the car even though it is joint car for the both of them because he thinks getting to parties and football practice is more important even though there are plenty of people he could get a lift from. He is also pressuring to go to a West coast college even though she has her heart set on East coast and Talon is the first person to agree with her that college is about new experiences and being independent not staying close to home. Despite this Zach gives her ticket for a tour of a college he is applying to and because her friend Nicky is busy she ends up inviting Talon to go with her even though she has never met him in real life.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, for the next week Keely and Talon exchange messages and phone calls becoming close to each other and building a bond that Keeley believes could develop into a relationship which explains her nervousness when she meets Talon for the first time to exchange phones. They end up planning to meet in a local coffee shop and getting to know each other a little better and I did really appreciate the author making Talon a southerner since this is a trope I will die for in romance that I do enjoy. The southern drawl just does something to me that I can’t explain. However, this meeting at the coffee shop she mentions who her brother is and Talon’s personality completely changes before he ends up leaving, this obviously means something is between Talon and her brother but we don’t know what. They do keep talking but it isn’t the same as before so when the college tour comes up Keeley thinks that Talon isn’t going to come but he does.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the college tour is extremely boring for both Keeley and Talon, neither of them really want to be there so they end up creating their own little tour. During this day, they get much closer learning more about each other and their histories and what they want from life and it really seems like they are going to become a couple. The scene on the beach ended with a cheeky kiss between the pair was amazing and everything seems to be going well until they are on their way back. When Keeley mentions that Zach is picking her up for the train station, Talon begins to panic and before he can say anything Zach outs him as being JT. Now, JT and Zach play the same football position for rival schools and both are potentially being headhunted by Barnett College which is Zach’s dream college. Keeley knows that this has been causing her brother a lot of stress since he has wanted to go to Barnett since he was ten and if the scholarship was given to JT it would crush him. Obviously Keeley feels betrayed by Talon keeping his identity a secret but we also understand if he had told her before this she would have been completely loyal to Zach even if he doesn’t really deserve it but I have to say it was nice of him not to rub her face in it or upset her more, he just comforts her when she needs it.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Keeley is obviously very torn up about Talon lying to her but he isn’t giving up and keeps trying to prove to her that the boy she got to know over the phone is the person he really is. Eventually this does pay off and she decides to give him another chance but they decide to keep their relationship a secret until after the big match between their two schools since it is the match that will decide both Zach and Talon’s futures. While they are officially dating Talon tells Keeley about his ex-girlfriend, Claire who cheated on him with a guy from her school’s team who turns out to be her brother. Keeley is furious about this since Zach is extremely hypocritical about her liking Talon when he is just as bad if not worse. Watching Keeley and Talon’s relationship develop was interesting as he is nice and supportive and constantly proves to her that she knows the real person as JT is just a persona she uses and she believes this despite her brother and best friend making her doubt Talon when he has been nothing but kind and respectful to all of them even her brother.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the day of the big match has arrived and Keeley is understandably nervous when she speaks to Talon. He asks her to wear his class ring since she won’t be openly cheering him on or sitting on his side of the field and she agrees. However, Zach spots her wearing it just before the game starts and he is obviously hurt and betrayed by this and won’t even speak to her when she wants to explain which she shouldn’t have to do. For the majority of the match everything is going fine and Zach’s team is winning until the ball goes out near where Talon is sitting. When Zach goes over to get it he punches Talon, this is important since there were no words exchanged beforehand and it was completely unprovoked which gets Zach sent off for disorderly conduct meaning he can’t play in the final half of the match. Very quickly Talon’s team take the lead and end up winning and I know that Zach is going to try and blame this on Keeley when it was his own fault for not being able to make it through one match, he could have punched Talon afterwards whether they won or lose but he has now put his future in danger because he couldn’t act like a grownup for a few hours and I have no sympathy for him at all.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we get to see what happens after the match and the secrets that are revealed and how these impact the relationship between Talon and Keeley. While there is a lot of teen angst and drama contained in the final section, the ending felt satisfying and fitted the tone of the novel. While this book wasn’t bad after it started as fanfiction it definitely wasn’t good either, I would definitely give Summers another chance to see if her writing has improved like it has with other fanfiction authors like Ali Hazelwood and Cassandra Clare but this isn’t something I would really recommend outside of getting someone out of a reading slump with a cheesy, guilty pleasure romance read.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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