I loved it!!! I love the books from this duo so, I didn't even read the blurb. It didn't take long to figure out where the story was going. It did, however, keep me on the edge of my seat to find out the details. I loved both of the main characters. They had both been through so much. Well, still going through so much. I couldn't put it down. I was really rooting for both of them.

I've loved everything Erin Watt has written, until this book. I just couldn't connect with it, and it just felt too forced. The story is about Beth, who's sister Rachel is killed in an accident, and the aftermath she faces from overprotective parents, Rachel's old boyfriend, and the person who killed Rachel being at Beth's school. This sounds like the start of a really good book but the problem I had was the beginning was too rushed and the storyline jumped forward so much I had a hard time trying to understand what was happening. One line of the story something is happening, and then the next line is something completely different, making the writing at the beginning of the book really disjointed. It did get better as the story progressed, however, I still had a hard time with it.

What I loved about previous Erin Watt books was they write with a certain level of realism that they stretch just enough for a great story. This time I thought the stretches were too much. First, the person who killed Rachel was in juvie but gets out and attends the same school as Beth; okay I can buy into that, even though the easier bet was getting his GED while in juvie. Second, the parents are borderline psycho in their over protectiveness; okay, I get that one too. But the final straw for me was Jeff, the dead sister's boyfriend, taking 2 years off high school and suddenly reappearing after a hiatus in England to finish school the same year Beth becomes a senior and the 'murderer' enrolls in the school. That was a bit too much for me, and at that point the story took a predictable and kind of boring turn. I did finish the book and have read enough of Erin Watt's other books to continue reading them, but I would not recommend this one to a first-time Watt reader.

This was the first Erin Watt book I have read, and after reading it I plan to find and read all the backlist titles. The writing is phenomenal in this book. I could not put the book down. I kept saying only one more chapter, and you know how that always goes...hello 1AM. This is a teen novel, set in senior year of highschool. The 2 main characters Beth and Chase have all the odds stacked against them in every finding an HEA.
I really enjoyed Chase's character. He was tough, strong, smart, and caring. He had no problem putting Beth in her place when she was acting out and making dangerous choices. I haven't been in High School for 20 years, and don't remember anyone going to the lengths of the bullying that goes on in this book. My heart aches for Teenagers that have to experience peer persecution everyday in real life at school. If this book gets only one point across, it is the power of forgiveness and healing. If you enjoy teen drama/romance novels, "One Small Thing" won't disappoint.

**********Honest Review given in exchange for ARC**************

Erin Watt is amazing with the edgy YA they write. I had a hard time putting this one down. It's a little tamer than their other books, but a great story nonetheless.

Beth has been heavily sheltered by her parents since her older sister died three years ago. She sneaks out to a party the weekend before senior year starts to have a night just for her. To rebel just a little. That’s when she meets Chase. Chase is her little secret, but he has a not so secret, secret of his own. Once she finds out Beth knows she should hate Chase, but she doesn’t. She honestly shouldn’t want anything to do with him, but she does. How do you fall in love with someone you shouldn’t? How do you forgive someone who should be unforgivable in your eyes? Read One Small Thing to see how a pair who shouldn’t be, are.

One Small Thing is ultimately a story about forgiveness, dealing with loss, and finding the bright side when you’re trapped in the dark. Somehow Erin Watt stuffs all of that into a coming of age YA novel tortilla, and boy is it tasty. Beth and Chase are both characters that grow throughout the story, and without each other I doubt the growth would happen. I think this story does a great job showing how people react to death in different ways, and how people forgive or not in different ways. Not only that but the sweet growth of young romance between Chase and Beth is fun to follow.

This story will get under your skin at some points. It will make you a little sad, a lot happy, and will make you think. It will even have you questioning your own morality in regards to forgiveness at some points, and it will also have you cheering the characters on as well.

All in all this is a great YA read. It was really enjoyable, emotional, and entertaining!

You will want to read “One Small Thing” in one sitting.

Fans of Erin Watt, the writing duo of bestselling authors Elle Kennedy and Jen Frederick, aren’t strangers to teenage angst, violence, drama and trauma. We made it through their Royals series—or at least the first four novels. Then we got a more romantic youthful love story with “When it’s Real.” This new novel, “One Small Thing,” falls somewhere in between.

Seventeen-year-old Beth and her family are struggling with the death of sister Rachel three years earlier in a car accident. Her parents have become so overprotective she feels like she’s in jail. And then she meets Chase—just released from juvie. He knows what jail is.

He has secrets, she has secrets, Rachel’s friends have secrets and so do all the adults. However this book wasn’t so much suspenseful as it was “All right already, put together the pieces!” I figured out who the real villain was early on, yet still I couldn’t put it down.

The story is set in the main characters’ idyllic (or is it?) small town of Darling with much of the action taking place at their high school. It hasn’t been THAT long since I was in high school but “One Small Thing” makes me grateful not to be back there. Darling High is part “Animal Farm,” where many are ruled by a few; and part “Lord of the Flies,” where adults don’t matter.

There is drama aplenty and I found myself frequently hating one or another of the characters. But hang in there: nearly all are redeemed. Surprisingly the small glimpses of humor are mostly from Chase. It’s hard not to love a character who has suffered so much and can still make the reader smile. Beth may come off as immature at times (17 is not that old and after all she’s had a lot to deal with) but part of what makes for such a satisfying ending is that she gets to where she is supposed to be. And the revelation of what the title means—I had wondered as soon as I saw it—was truly beautiful.

Enthusiastically recommended.

ARC received for an honest review.

Addictive writing and a tragically beautiful story, this book is everything I expect from Erin Watt.

Unable to put it down. Highly recommended.

Beth feels trapped. Since her sister died, her lenient parents have turned into wardens and all she want to do is finish her senior year before escaping to college. One night of rebellious behavior leads to a hook-up with a stranger, and Beth's life becomes more complicated when Chase shows up in her classes on Monday morning. If that wasn't enough, it turns out that Chase isn't a stranger at all, he's the person who was sent to juvie for killing her sister.

Erin Watt delivers another emotionally wrenching teen novel about guilt, forgiveness and letting go. Beth's emotions are painfully real - the struggled between herself and her parents, the connection she feels with Chase and the alienation she gets from her peers for abstaining from bullying him - they all form a complex web that will draw the reader to Beth as she tries to figure out who she wants to be. The only thing that would have made this novel better would have been some alternating chapters from Chase's perspective. Great for fans of Katie McGarry or Simone Elkeles.

If you know me, then you know that I loved The Royals series by Erin Watt. They are an auto buy authors for me. So when I saw that they were coming out with a new release I knew I had to get my hands on it. While I expected to like it, I didn't expect to be blown away by how real it would be.

It really brought out some emotions for me and I didn't expect that. This book dealt with death, grief, family issues and bullying. So be warned of that. I feel like the authors really wrote this well. They really made me remember what it was like to be a teenager. Caring what people think about you, how friendships were everything, and also it teaches you about how to forgive.

Beth and Chase had everything against them from the beginning. I had to see how if it would work out between them. It's a hard book to rate because you want to root for them, but then you wonder is it right? Should the relationship happen at all? I felt like I was just as conflicted as the main characters about their relationship.

The reason I didn't give it five stars was because I did have some issues with the secondary characters. I felt like nobody really redeemed themselves in my opinion, especially her parents.

Overall, I recommend this one! It was raw and it made me an emotional mess at times. I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn't put it down. Even if you are not a fan of contemporary, give it a shot!

In some ways, going back to NA/YA can be frustrating no matter the author, only because it’s hard to step back into a teen’s POV when your older self wants nothing but to smack these characters…though not before wondering if your younger self were ever this way. Teenage angst galore is what ‘One Small Thing’ opens with—an act of rebellion that turns into a hookup (the start of a familiar downward spiral) that in turn reveals a whole slew of ugly emotions and self-destructive behaviour with generous helpings of hate, guilt, misery and selfishness.

We’re thrown in the deep end from the start, only because Erin Watt doesn’t shy away from wading into the aftermath of a death that happened 3 years ago…and how people the closest to this tragedy deal with it. Elizabeth Jones, who’s smack in the centre of the hurricane is a difficult one to like, for this reason. Hemmed in by her parents, her subsequent lashing out is understandable but still cringeworthy, since it’s admittedly hard to read about a protagonist who doesn’t know her own mind for a large part of the book, who wavers in doing what she clearly knows she should do and whose self-absorption and naïveté make it hard to be sympathetic to her plight.

But character growth has always been imperative in such books, and Watt certainly offers a ton of it, if you can get past the melodrama that tends to accompany the usual dose of teenage angst. In contrast to the negativity that permeates so much of the book, at some point in time, forgiveness and redemption need to come into the picture and they do, as the lessons are learned from the most unexpected source.

Objectively speaking, the characterisation is well done, even if the story ends on a note that can’t really be classified as a HEA or a HFN. The teens act exactly how I expected them to, amplified with the kind of existential angst they face along with their identity crisis and there’s always the sense of a fresh new start (though somewhat abruptly done in the conclusion) and nothing but a blank slate down the road. Watt’s storytelling is compelling nonetheless, though I wasn’t as moved by this as much as I thought I would be.

This review won't be an easy one to write. One Small Thing was emotional, raw, and it evoked quite a few volatile outbursts out of me. I was entirely engrossed in this YA novel that awoke feelings in me that I haven't experienced in a long time. I felt like my teenage self again, misunderstood, belittled, helpless, and frustrated. I have never felt this kind of emotions while reading a book. It was like I stepped into a time machine. Back to my teenage years, except I had it so much better than Beth.

As an adult, looking back on my teenage years, I must say I was lucky. The loss that Beth's parents went through is something I never ever can fathom, but the overprotectiveness that came afterwards would have definitely suffocated me. Beth was torn between the life that she had before her sisters died, and the restrictions she had to endure under the watchful eyes of her parents ever since. Just reading what Beth had to tolerate made me want to rebel myself, scream and rant about the unfairness of it all.

I had no trouble connecting with Beth. If I had to go through similar restrictions I would have pulled my hair and acted out every which way. Her struggle felt real, and it tugged on my heart strings. I wanted to go and hug her, give her parents a piece of my mind and smack a few of her classmates over the head in the process.  Every day was a new battle for Beth. And her willingness to try new ways was endearing as well as admirable. 

Her struggle increased tenfold when Beth forged a friendship with Chase that went against all general consensus. It became a major source of conflict and discontent between herself and everyone else in her life. 

This novel made me howl with outrage. I wanted to strangle a certain character. Honestly there weren't that many likable characters in this book to start with. Chase was my favorite by far. His stoic and quiet demeanor fit the circumstances, and knowing he found his one small thing in Beth, made me incredibly happy. Beth surprised me with quite a few times with a sudden show of maturity, that was truly delightful. And I could suddenly see her as a grown woman and I definitely liked what I saw!

One Small Thing was an emotional and heart-wrenching story that put me through the wringer. And I mean it!!! From beginning to end I was "OMG how can she endure this", and "OMG those idiots" and at last "YES, a HEA".  I honestly couldn't put it down. It was an intense and stirring read, that I'll remember for a long time. So with that said, what I loved the best about One Small Thing was the ending. It was UNIQUE, fitting to the storyline and perfectly executed. 

So, if you love teenage drama and angst this is the book for you. 

Review will be posted on the blog BOOK TWINS REVIEWS on July 19th