Passes with Flying Colours

Flying Colors by Clare London
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been waiting for this book for ages, ever since I first "met" Red and Carter in "True Colors". I confess to being one of the ones begging for their story. Spin offs, sequels and series are harder to write than they look. Clare and I even shared a blog about the concept of sequels and series here: http://www.abgayle.com/1/category/cla...

So I pre-ordered the story and devoured it as soon as I could.

I was not disappointed. It isn't easy getting the balance between showing the established couple from the initial book, keeping their relationship with the character in the picture, building the new relationship and making it relevant to the world they live in.

I feel Clare came up trumps. I felt convinced they were right for each other. Neither revealed their true fears and strengths to the other inititally for fear of being hurt, but we saw those strengths in their interactions with others.

I enjoyed the way they dealt with the youth centre. Sure it is a trope, but there were a number of very pointed messages in there from the author about how these things could and should be organised, so I felt that lifted it from being just a plot device.

As usual, the prose read fluidly. I'm a nit picker, and if it had been in my hands as a beta reader there would be very little "red" on the page. Which as those who have had to suffer at my hands know is a rare thing.

I haven't read anyone else's reactions to the story for the simple reason, I wanted to see it through my own eyes first.

If anything, I enjoyed it more than I did "True Colors". Not sure why, perhaps because I knew the characters better. Red and Carter are likeable but not two dimensional. I appreciated the interaction with the parents.

The tension and conflict didn't come from manufactured bullies or villains, it was more whether they could get over their own prejudices. At one stage Carter makes a joke about Zeke and Miles being like Jane Austen's story, there was certainly a lot of prejudice on Carter's side. But he gradually saw through the brittle exterior and allowed Red into his life.

As a spin-off it certainly passed with "Flying Colors".

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