This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is the sixth in the “Christy Miller” series.
This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is the sixth in the “Christy Miller” series.
When Christy Miller agrees to go on a date with Rick Doyle, she has no idea that she’ll have a boyfriend by the end of the night. But instead of it being Todd, a surfer she likes, Christy becomes Rick’s girlfriend.
During an elegant dinner date in Newport Beach, Rick tells Christy that he’s been waiting to date her for almost a year. Then he goes down on one knee and asks Christy to be his girlfriend. Christy is stunned; she says yes.
The situation becomes complicated when the valet at the restaurant turns out to be Doug, Todd’s best friend. Doug invites Rick and Christy to a mutual friend’s house to meet up with the whole gang from the previous summer. This includes Todd. Christy avoids Todd at the party and leaves with Rick.
Christy decides to stay overnight at her aunt and uncle’s house and goes for a jog on the beach the next morning. There she finds Todd and tells him that what she feels for him is completely different than what she feels for Rick. Todd responds by saying that it was selfish of him to try to hold onto her and wait for her to grow up. Then he tells her that he is moving to Hawaii to join the pro-surfing circuit with his childhood friend Kimo. Christy is crushed but has a new determination to make her relationship with Rick work.
The more time Christy spends with Rick, though, the more she realizes how different he is from Todd. Rick continually makes her late for curfew, and his kisses make Christy uncomfortable. After Christy gets a job at a pet store, Rick tries to make her change her hours or find a new job so that they can spend more time together. Later, he tries to take her to an R-rated movie and gets mad at her for refusing to go in. Finally, Christy decides that she’s not ready to be anyone’s girlfriend and breaks up with Rick. She feels peaceful afterward and tells God that she wants to love Him more than anyone or anything.
After Todd tells Christy about his plans to move to Hawaii, he puts his hand on her forehead and blesses her. When Christy tells Alissa that she likes both Rick and Todd, Alissa warns her not to look for a guy to fill her heart; she should fill her heart with God. Later, when Rick asks Christy why she has such a strong connection to Todd, she realizes it’s because Todd loves God more than anything else in his life. Christy comes to the conclusion that she wants God to be her first love as well.
None
On their first date, Rick tells Christy she has plenty of time before curfew and convinces her to go for a walk on the beach with him. As a result, she arrives at her aunt and uncle’s house a half hour late. Uncle Bob tells Christy that she needs to decide whether to believe everything Rick tells her. The next morning, Christy goes for a jog along the shoreline and accidentally runs into Todd. She finds out he is moving to Hawaii. When Christy returns to the house, Aunt Marti yells at her for sneaking out, but Uncle Bob lets it go because she’s crying.
Rick brings Christy home from her aunt and uncle’s house that night and makes her almost two hours late for curfew. Her parents are angry because they didn’t know where Christy was or if she was OK. They tell her that she needs to be more responsible and ask for permission before she makes plans to go out. Christy’s dad also tells her that he doesn’t want his daughter to wear tight clothing, as Christy is wearing a trendy new pair of jeans. He lets her know that she needs to find a job to pay for gas so she can drive the car to school each week. As a final punishment, her parents ground her for two weeks. Even when Rick comes to Christy’s house the next day and asks if he can take Christy out, her dad firmly says no. Later, he tells his daughter that he doesn’t have all the answers; after all, he’s never raised a teenager who can date and drive before.
When Christy gets a job at the pet store in the mall, Rick comes to talk to her during her break and makes her late getting back to the store. Christy assures her new boss, Jon, that she won’t be late again, and he lets it slide.
None
While walking on the beach during their first date, Rick tells Christy to close her eyes and wish on the moon. Then he kisses her quickly, smugly admitting that he got what he wished for. However, every time Rick kisses her, Christy pulls away because she feels that he is coming on too strong. Later, she compares her physical relationship with Rick to her physical relationship with Todd: Rick kisses her forcefully and only kisses her when they are alone, but Todd always kissed her lightly and in public places, where anyone could see them, showing that they have nothing to hide.
Christy’s friend Alissa, who became pregnant at age 17, asks Christy to promise that she wouldn’t do anything more than light kissing with a guy. Later, when Christy tells Rick about her kissing standard, he makes fun of her. After Christy ends her relationship with Rick, her former cheerleading rival, Renee, assumes that Christy lost her virginity to him and that he broke up with her after he got what he wanted.
Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books.
Stealing: Upset that Christy still wears the Forever bracelet that she got from Todd, Rick asks her to take it off during their first date. Christy puts the bracelet in her purse, but accidentally leaves her purse in Rick’s car that night. Later, Rick trades the bracelet to a jewelry store in exchange for one with his name on it. He gives it to Christy. Once Christy finds out what happened, she is furious and demands that Rick returns Todd’s bracelet to her. After she breaks up with Rick and gives back his gift, she has nothing to trade to the jewelry store and must buy Todd’s bracelet.
You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected].
Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
