A review by kfriend
Fighting For You by Monica Murphy
4.0
I just love Monica Murphy’s young love/new adult stories- stories that make me feel all nostalgic for the epic, angsty, hyperbolic first love. How everything felt bigger, more dramatic, and new and exciting when I was a teen. While her characters might have extraordinary lives, I love the ways MM captures the normal teenage experience- the universality of growing up and maturing, while experiencing romance for the first time.
Fighting For You is the story of Diego and Jocelyn- two characters we’ve seen go through as secondary fixtures in the past two books, and a couple whose story has been heartbreaking- a man who cheated with the enemy, and his jilted girlfriend left pregnant. Monica had a seemingly impossible task with this story. Not only does Diego’s book fall on the heels of the books about arguably her most adored couple of all time, but she’s also telling the story of a character that we’ve grown to dislike….perhaps even hate. A character who has been the villain in other characters’ love stories. A character I wasn’t sure I could like, let alone forgive. But Monica is pretty successful at flipping my opinion about Diego- as surprised as I was.
What I always find so captivating about MM’s steamy new adult/mature YA is that she lets her characters be TEENs. They act like teenagers, they react like teenagers- they are selfish and emotional, vulnerable and insecure, they dramatize first love and they also make emotionally immature mistakes as the result of it. This is not the story of teens acting like full formed adults...this are teens experiencing complex emotions that they aren’t quite sure how to handle. And this story takes it to the next level- because these are two teens now trying to figure out how to repair a broken relationship AND figuring out an adult responsibility that even the most seasoned adults struggle to master- co-parenting.
Monica does find some ways to justify Diego’s behavior...and to be honest, his motives frustrated me. But again, Monica is letting him be a TEEN. His choices are immature, irrational, but that's part of his growing. MM also doesn’t change the core of him- though she brings it nuance- he’s still quick to anger, selfish at times, and a bit jaded. But we come to understand why, and even if I still struggle to accept his past actions, MM gives his character room to breathe and grow, and she also lets him MATURE. Of all the characters in this series, he grows to the most. Diego becomes a father long before he becomes a man, but learn to be a man he does. And, in the end, I found him changed enough to feel he was more worthy of the forgiveness that Jocelyn so frequently tries to give him...until she’s hurt too much.
Jocelyn was different from the other heroines in this series- she has a gravitas that the others don’t have, because her life is changing in very adult ways. Pregnant as a teen- her dreams are dashed, a loss cofounded by the heartbreak she routinely experiences as Diego’s hands. Again, like Diego, Monica lets her be a teen- she’s lost, stressed, and emotional. She’s desperate to make meaning of her messed up situation- to understand what happened with Diego, and so she too makes emotional and immature decisions. Decisions that aren’t always in her best interest...until she finds out how to stand on her own. She has to grow and mature herself, find control of her choices.
Ultimately, Monica finds a way to take a love story that was heartbreaking and toxic, and she gives new life through the complexities of these characters. I found myself charmed by the evolution of these two as they learned to stop grow apart and how to intentionally grow together- and though the path to their happy ending is hard and painful in places, their journey turns out indeed to be one worth fighting for. Such a sweet and angsty story!
Fighting For You is the story of Diego and Jocelyn- two characters we’ve seen go through as secondary fixtures in the past two books, and a couple whose story has been heartbreaking- a man who cheated with the enemy, and his jilted girlfriend left pregnant. Monica had a seemingly impossible task with this story. Not only does Diego’s book fall on the heels of the books about arguably her most adored couple of all time, but she’s also telling the story of a character that we’ve grown to dislike….perhaps even hate. A character who has been the villain in other characters’ love stories. A character I wasn’t sure I could like, let alone forgive. But Monica is pretty successful at flipping my opinion about Diego- as surprised as I was.
What I always find so captivating about MM’s steamy new adult/mature YA is that she lets her characters be TEENs. They act like teenagers, they react like teenagers- they are selfish and emotional, vulnerable and insecure, they dramatize first love and they also make emotionally immature mistakes as the result of it. This is not the story of teens acting like full formed adults...this are teens experiencing complex emotions that they aren’t quite sure how to handle. And this story takes it to the next level- because these are two teens now trying to figure out how to repair a broken relationship AND figuring out an adult responsibility that even the most seasoned adults struggle to master- co-parenting.
Monica does find some ways to justify Diego’s behavior...and to be honest, his motives frustrated me. But again, Monica is letting him be a TEEN. His choices are immature, irrational, but that's part of his growing. MM also doesn’t change the core of him- though she brings it nuance- he’s still quick to anger, selfish at times, and a bit jaded. But we come to understand why, and even if I still struggle to accept his past actions, MM gives his character room to breathe and grow, and she also lets him MATURE. Of all the characters in this series, he grows to the most. Diego becomes a father long before he becomes a man, but learn to be a man he does. And, in the end, I found him changed enough to feel he was more worthy of the forgiveness that Jocelyn so frequently tries to give him...until she’s hurt too much.
Jocelyn was different from the other heroines in this series- she has a gravitas that the others don’t have, because her life is changing in very adult ways. Pregnant as a teen- her dreams are dashed, a loss cofounded by the heartbreak she routinely experiences as Diego’s hands. Again, like Diego, Monica lets her be a teen- she’s lost, stressed, and emotional. She’s desperate to make meaning of her messed up situation- to understand what happened with Diego, and so she too makes emotional and immature decisions. Decisions that aren’t always in her best interest...until she finds out how to stand on her own. She has to grow and mature herself, find control of her choices.
Ultimately, Monica finds a way to take a love story that was heartbreaking and toxic, and she gives new life through the complexities of these characters. I found myself charmed by the evolution of these two as they learned to stop grow apart and how to intentionally grow together- and though the path to their happy ending is hard and painful in places, their journey turns out indeed to be one worth fighting for. Such a sweet and angsty story!