Shut Out

Shut Out By: Kody Keplinger
Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling...
Do you ever get annoyed when you read multiple books by the same author, and discover the main characters are always the same? I do. But, thankfully, that was not the case with Shut Out. I recently finished The DUFF, and liked it so much I started Shut Out right away. The two novels are set in the same town, but you don't need to read one to enjoy the other. There was no mention of Bianca and Wesley (which I would have liked), and Lissa, Cash, and Randy were nothing like them. There are similarities between Lissa and Bianca, like a little OCD and living with their dads, but besides that I think they had different voices. Cash and Wesley were not mirrored, with the only difference being their name. Randy wasn't the stereotypical bad boyfriend making you incapable of understanding why Lissa was with him. I'm not saying I liked the guy, but I could understand why they were together. Like The DUFF, Shut Out had the whole "overcoming labels" theme. The book was mainly about sex, or lack thereof, and explored many of the girls take on it. I thought this was especially interesting. A lot of this book felt like a conversation I would have with my best friend.  So, give it a read! And let me know how you like it :-]