The Comeback Season by Jennifer E. Smith

Title: The Comeback Season
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publication Date: March 2008
Pages: 256

Rating: B+
Plot - 16/20
Characters - 19/20
Writing - 18/20
Originality - 16/20
Entertainment - 9/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 88/100

Summary:
The last place Ryan Walsh should be this afternoon is on a train heading to Wrigley Field. She should be in class, enduring yet another miserable day of her first year of high school. But for once, Ryan isn't thinking about what she should be doing. She's not worried about her lack of friends, or her suffering math grade, or how it's been five whole years since the last time she was really and truly happy. Because she's finally returning to the place that her father loved, where the two of them spent so many afternoons cheering on their team. And on this -- the fifth anniversary of his death -- it feels like there's nowhere else in the world she should be.
Ryan is once again filled with hope as she makes her way to the game. Good luck is often hard to come by at a place like Wrigley Field, but it's on this day that she meets Nick, the new kid from her school, who seems to love the Cubs nearly as much as she does. But Nick carries with him a secret that makes Ryan wonder if anyone can ever really escape their past, or believe in the promise of those reassuring words: "Wait till next year." Is it too much for Ryan to hope that this year, this season, might be her comeback season?

Review:
I had heard so many great things about this novel, and I had high expectations. And they were filled to the brim. Smith crafted a calm, heartwarming and moving novel that will take your breath away. With Smith's composed writing style and touching characters, this book will grip tight and not let go. I read it on Sunday in one sitting, I could not part ways with it.

Ryan is a brilliant and delicate in her beautiful way. Her character is truly a unique character. All the characters Smith fashioned were all well defined. Her story was strictly a stunning story of loss, love, and most of all hope. Hope for the Cubs and for Nick both.

The fact that Smith added baseball as a common interest between Ryan and her dad and also for Ryan and Nick, and with out having it labeled as a 'baseball' read was fantastic. It's not about baseball, it's about the Cubs, as Ryan says, but also, like I said above, loss, love, and hope.

Jennifer E. Smith created a wonderfully enjoyable and highly recommend novel that I am sure anybody would love, because what's not to love about this novel?