Westview belongs on a postcard. Quaint, picture-perfect, a tiny New England town steeped in history and traditions.
Angela has always been everything people in Westview want her to be. She's supposed to be happy there, but she's starting to see the flaws in her seemingly-perfect life and she's afraid that everyone else will notice, too. Now, in her senior year of high school, she wants something more than small towns, something bigger than the life planned out for her by a family that has designed and destroyed reputations in Westview for generations.
Owen knows that history can depend on who tells the story, even in Westview. But all he wants is to run away from his own past, from the bad decisions he's made and the tragedies still haunting him. He's focused on the future and proving people wrong, even if that means keeping secrets.
Long before they understood the rumours and grudges that rule their hometown, Angela and Owen were friends for one perfect summer. Since then, they've stayed as far apart as possible. But when Westview's tricentennial forces them to work together, they must face difficult truths about themselves, their community, what being perfect really means-and the devastating consequences of pretending.
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It was golden hour over New England as Angela pulled out of her driveway. 1
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(@unbounders, 4 March 2021, 284 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 9 March via @RandomTTours)
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My eyes were still sore from crying the morning after I finished Slow Motion that's how much this gorgeous book affected me. This book reached inside my chest, took a hold of my heart, gave it a squeeze and refused to let go until I'd read the devastating ending and started to cry. I love the title of the book, Slow Motion fits the pace of life in Westview perfectly yet the book and characters are the opposite of slow. This book is really in two halves as we get the POV of both Angela and Owen, who come from different social circles yet have started to see the darker side of their small town and can't look away. The book is quite light at first but gradually gets darker as old secrets come to the surface and Angela becomes increasingly unhappy with the 'perfect' life thrust upon her the expectations that come with it. I fell hard for Slow Motion.