Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer

When his dad is caught embezzling funds from half the town, Rob goes from popular lacrosse player to social pariah. Even worse, his father’s failed suicide attempt leaves Rob and his mother responsible for his care. 

Everyone thinks of Maegan as a typical overachiever, but she has a secret of her own after the pressure got to her last year. And when her sister comes home from college pregnant, keeping it from her parents might be more than she can handle.

When Rob and Maegan are paired together for a calculus project, they’re both reluctant to let anyone through the walls they’ve built. But when Maegan learns of Rob’s plan to fix the damage caused by his father, it could ruin more than their fragile new friendship...

This captivating, heartfelt novel asks the question: Is it okay to do something wrong for the right reasons?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40653162-call-it-what-you-want

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My Review: 5/5 Stars

What I love about Brigid Kemmerer's YA contemporary books is the characters. They are always they complex beautifully written characters that you find yourself becoming attached to right in the beginning. They are complicated and have these pasts and current problems that are real. Their reactions are real. They can be harsh and gritty but it just makes the story better because you want to find out what happens to them. To see if they can find their way out of difficult circumstances and find happiness. In Call It What You Want we have Rob and Maegan. Rob is living with the fact that his father tried to commit suicide and failed because he was caught embezzling money. Now everyone looks at Rob like it is his fault. That his father's sins are his own. Meanwhile, Maegan is paying the price for cracking under pressure and attempting to cheat on her SATs the year before. Now everyone looks at her and calls her a cheater. It was one mistake and one that she punishes herself for every day. And now her sister has returned home from college pregnant, and the secrets she shares with Maegan is another form of pressure she doesn't think she can handle. When Maegan and Rob are thrown together for a school project, they realize how lonely they are and that having someone to talk to and be with may be okay. Drama, secrets, everything that comes with high school and a lot more. I loved this story. There were plenty of plot twists that kept you on your toes and like I said earlier I was compelled to find out if these two characters could find their way. Great story!