Looking for escapist romance that reads like a movie? Then look no further. Chasing After Knight is a quick read that clips right along. Initially, the book starts out alternating between the present and past events; this serves to tease along the reader and pique the interest. What was so horrible in the past? Well, when it is eventually revealed, it is pretty horrible. Alexa, the protagonist, has a history with a certain guy and once she revisits it, she just can’t let it go. The plot then starts to steam ahead. Many elements of this story are not completely believable. Alexa is amazingly self-absorbed (obsessed?) and her friends are amazingly forgiving for most of the book. The miscommunications and lack of communication among the characters is really quite stellar, but, frankly, that does drive most romance plots–fictional or real. Readers looking for a fast beach read might want to tuck this one in their bag.
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 31 religious exclamations; 21 mild obscenities; 7 scatological words; 5 anatomical terms; 2 F-word derivatives.
Violence/Gore: Character twists ankle.
Sex/Nudity: Characters hold hands; characters kiss; boy puts arm around girls waist; reference to make-out scenes; dad tells daughter’s boyfriend not to get his daughter pregnant during a discussion; middle-school characters play spin the bottle and kiss on a dare; reference to someone knowing love as a verb “according to the freshman cheerleading squad”; joke about alien mating soap star; report of 2 teenage girls streaking topless in front of an old people’s home on a dare; girl sits on boy’s lap; joke about being a “ho ho ho”; character says that he was born out of wedlock; boy and girl kiss on her bed; characters kiss passionately.
Mature Subject Matter:
Parental abandonment, fake IDs, underage characters go to bars/nightclubs.
Alcohol and Drug Use:
Joking reference that someone looks like they “smoked out”; reference to overdose; character states that she doesn’t drink or smoke; reference to a teen smoking; underage characters going into bar/night club on more than one occasion; a woman is drunk at a bar; reference to beer pong; there is a party at a teenager’s house and it “stinks of stale beer and weed”; reference to party punch; a high school senior teaches herself how to mix drinks and then she works at a nightclub as a bartender.
