The Lonesome Young by Lucy Connors

Series: Standalone

Release Date: April 8th, 2014

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The typical Shakespearean tragedy, Romeo and Juliet told with a Justified twist is the book The Lonesome Young.

Although the book does follow the typical clichéd plot of two feuding families, who obviously hate each other, with a privileged rich girl and a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, down on his luck–it was awesome! But I feel that I have to mention that I never get tired of clichéd plots, like Romeo and Juliet or the admittedly overused Cinderella plot, as long as they’re done well. And this book was!

Lucy Connors did an excellent job of making both Mickey and Victoria more dimensional than the people they emulate: Romeo and Juliet. Unlike Juliet, Victoria has a hard time being the mediator in her family: being more than perfect to make up for her druggie older sister and her younger brother, who still wants to be a kid. And then there’s Mickey, who, unlike Romeo, is too busy worrying about how his two older half-brothers choices will affect his lives and the lives of those he loves.

But the main difference between the original tale of Romeo and Juliet and this novel was noticeable: both the characters are seventeen, and both are incredibly more mature. They see how their choices will affect their families and the consequences of their actions. And yet it doesn’t stop them. I feel the reason that this book did so well was that the characters felt so real. The Lonesome Young was told in first person dual POV, which meant the reader got to experience a situation from both sides of the couple, and you got to see where each character was coming from.

And since Mickey’s older brother is the definition of trouble, his bad decisions end up leaking into Mickey’s life, which creates loads of problems for Mickey and his relationship with Victoria. This leads to the other part that made The Lonesome Young so exciting: the family drama and family history. Mickey and Victoria are both familiar with looking out for their siblings and trying to protect or understand their parents. Still, a lot of the book was about how their past family history, being their great-great grandparent’s bad decisions, or even how their parents created a rippling effect, which caused all these problems to occur in the present. It was fascinating, and because of all this drama, I always felt that the other shoe was going to drop, because hello, every other page it felt like Mickey or Victoria was being told to end their relationship with the other… or else.

The best part of The Lonesome Young was that I honestly never knew what was going to happen next. There were so many parts of the equation that I didn’t yet know or even understand that I felt like maybe Mickey and Victoria’s ending wouldn’t have a HEA.

A plot derived from the famous story Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers and in The Lonesome Young from opposite sides of society with feuding families, this is a must-read! And although the storyline has been used over and over again, Lucy Connors did an excellent job by adding layers and twists to the plot. The story of The Lonesome Young, therefore, becomes a journey none like any previously told; with a country twist, you never know what the next page will contain.

Preview The Lonesome Young on Amazon Kindle