When it comes to love there’s no such thing as conventional.
Everyone thinks Colton Neely is special.
Lilly Evans just thinks he’s fascinating.
Everyone thinks Colton Neely is special.
Lilly Evans just thinks he’s fascinating.
Once friends when they were younger, their bond is cut short due to her accident prone nature and they go their separate ways. Years later, they meet again and Lilly learns that there is something special about the boy she once knew, but she has no idea what it all means. And she’s not sure if she’s ready to find out.
When he walks through the corridor of her school the first day of her senior year, she knows that it’s time to get to know the real Colton Neely. The more she learns, the deeper she falls.
Their friendship grows into love, even as Colton does not express it in words. But one decision threatens to break down the world that Lilly has tried so hard to integrate into and she must figure out if the relationship can survive if they are apart
Puddle Jumping is about a girl-Lilly-who loves Colton, a boy with Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's syndrome is a form of high functioning autism.
I thought this book was a romance, and it is in a lot of ways, but then again it's not your conventional love story. Mainly because Colton can't show his love for Lilly in the way most people are used to, and because the book shows not only the struggles of a Colton, also the struggle of the people surrounding him. His mother, his father and Lilly.
Lilly is a great and unique character. She's adventurous and accident prone, but don't mistake her for a rebel or rule breaker. I love how she tells things like she sees them. She's completely enamored by Colton and she shows it, but she knows how hard it is to be with him and she expresses that too. She's patient to no end with him and goes out of her way to make life easy for him, she never tries to force him into anything and always makes sure he's comfortable with any situation their in. And even though she knows there's more to him than his condition, she still acknowledges that he's different because of it. She may be mature about her relationship with Colton, but at the same time she's still a teenage girl, she knows this and she acts like it. She feels sorry for herself at times but never mopes because she knows what she's in for and that it's her decision to stay with Colton and that it's not an obligation. She's just an amazing person.
Colton has Aspergers, and I absolutely love that it isn't played down in the book. He isn't a prince charming by any means, but he loves Lilly. You can clearly see throughout the book that he can't show his love to Lilly like people normally do, but that just makes it sweeter when he does show it in a way he's comfortable with. You can't help falling in love with him, because honestly, despite his condition, he's a lovely person .
Mrs. Neely is a wonderful mother. At first you might think she's too overprotective or mean, but the more you read about her the lovelier she gets. She treats Lilly like a daughter and whenever Lilly has a hard time with something, she comforts her and somehow makes things better.
There wasn't much going on in the book except for Lilly navigating her relationship with Colton, but the storytelling was beautiful and fun to read. I wish there was more dialogue in the book, because I loved watching the characters interact but a lot of times the dialogue had bits of it written descriptively.
I definitely recommend this book to everyone, it's heartwarming and fun, and by the end of the book you'll be surprised how much you've learned about Aspergers.