It's Over

by Laura L. Smith

How do you move on when It's Over? When four college roommates lose pieces of their lives, the pain isolates and the tension rises. Emotions are hard to hide and even harder to tackle. How can the girls move forward, when there is so much pain in letting go? Together, Claire, Kat, Palmer and Hannah learn to lean on God and each other, and through it all they learn loss is a part of life.

It's Over confirms everyone has a story, everyone has experienced pain, but more importantly, everyone of us has great hope. Smith's writing strikes a deep chord in my heart ~Holly Starr, Christian recording artist

In writing that's raw, relevant, and real, Smith goes where few authors dare to go: straight to the heart of today's young woman. ~Amy Parker, best selling author of Courageous Teens

For teens looking for a series that affirms how faith and friendship go hand in hand, Smith finds a way to weave together four very different lives into the hearts of her readers, and you'll find yourself cheering for their journeys, both separate and together! ~Rajdeep Paulus, author of Swimming Through Clouds

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 14, 2013

About the author

Laura L. Smith lis a best-selling author and speaker. She loves Jesus, her husband, her four kiddos, music,books, coffee, France, and chocolate. Smith lives in the college town of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Reviews

[Laura Kurk · Rating 5 out of 5]

In It's Over, Laura L. Smith (author of Hot, Skinny, and Angry) continues the contemporary university stories of the four girls from It's Complicated. The girls, who have solidified their solid relationships on campus, must travel between home and school dealing with the worst parts of life--the death of a sibling, the aging of a grandparent, disloyal boyfriends, and the loss of a home. Through their trials, they continue to lean on one another and God, and find ways to be thankful even in the lean times. Smith crafts a story that will appeal to all girls.

Smith tackles incredibly difficult issues in this book--death, aging, depression, drug use, and jealousy and confusion. She folds story lines together so elegantly that readers will relate. It's a great reminder to all of us that all people have difficulties, no one is immune, and it is our job as caring individuals to sympathize and reach out.

My favorite part of this book, and this series, is that Smith writes about a time of life during which we have a tendency to be self-absorbed and turns that on its head. She shows the strain that comes from self-absorption and the beauty that comes from reaching out to others and to God. As in It's Complicated, Smith again teaches her characters to look away from mirrors and toward the people God has placed in their paths.

This is a fantastic read, one that will resonate with teens and college-aged girls and their mothers! I also recommend it for youth group use and situational studies. Fans of authors like Nicole O'Dell, Stephanie Morrill, Nancy Rue, and Melody Carlson will love Smith's style, voice, and subject matter.

[Kasey Giard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tragedy greets Kat when she arrives home from college for fall break. Though her three roomies band together in support, Kat can barely find the strength to move through the motions of her life. Claire, still reeling from her own injuries of heart, seems to be the only one who can reach Kat. As Thanksgiving draws closer, each girl faces a shift in an important relationship, and as Claire suggested, each attempts to discover something to be thankful for amidst the rubble that remains. Palmer fields not-so-subtle comments on her waistline from her mother and expertly blocks her boyfriend’s attempts for sex. But can she stay pure and stay with Keegan? As in the first book, the four roommates draw strength from one another, support each other and encourage each other in faith.
Smith carries readers through a rainbow expertly rendered emotions, from happy holiday celebrations to the deepest of heartache and the purest dawning of hope. Each of the girls has a distinct voice with a different perspective. This is a great series for the reader looking for some fun, lighthearted moments and open to the deeper lessons life has to offer.

[AnyKname · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread review: I don't know if it'll work but here we go. I think I liked it more than last time. Still love seeing the girls interacting. I still don't get Hannah's comment about Palmer being a piece of work. The one thing I didn't care for is a spoiler, When Kat seems to meet Alex in Barcelona, it's interesting, it seems like a vision but it seems real, we're not supposed to talk to the dead, and it's not like Kat did something to communicate with Alex but it still doesn't sit right with me. For content, I think there was the same thing of making out intending to lead to more but it doesn't, there's a comment about a guy being delicious in the context of sex. Can't think of much more than that.

My first three star rating I’ve given a book on this platform. I think I would have liked it more had it not taken me so long to get through. I was pretty busy with school the majority of my time reading this book so I would only read it before bed and I would only read a chapter per night and some nights not even that and a lot of these chapters are short and there’s 52 chapters total. Not only that but I had to put this book down for a bit when I got to a part where the subject matter was not helpful to what I was struggling with, I’m being vague because I don’t really want to talk about it.
If I remember correctly about 50% of this book takes place during holidays. During what I assume is a reading break and then during thanksgiving, actually there’s a lot of time focused on these girls’ thanksgiving break. For me at least the first book started to get good once these girls started school and were living dorm life, so I didn’t really like that there was more focus on the girls’ struggles apart from each other. Also maybe it’s just my book but this book doesn’t have page numbers. I didn’t realize this until I had gotten a good amount into it but yeah there’s no page numbers, but there are chapter numbers. I don’t really have much else to say that doesn’t contain spoilers, so onto the spoiler portion:
I really need to stop looking at the tags at the bottom of the page that has all the technical stuff. The first book had a tag that said sexual assault and this one had a tag that said death. So then I was nervous like “who’s going to die? It better not be one of the four girls.” Then literally the first chapter we learn that Alex (Kat’s brother) had gotten into a car accident. So then I was like “well, I guess that’s whose dying” and I was right and the rest of Kat’s story is about her grieving process. I wonder if these first two books are Laura L Smith’s attempts at writing sad books because I was reading the reviews of It’s Complicated and a few said that they cried at that book and I’m assuming this book is supposed to make you cry as well. I did not cry at either book, there were moments reading this book where I wanted to cry but I didn’t actually shed any tears. I think I would have cried had Alex been in more of the first book or had we gotten more of him in this book before he died, or had his death been foreshadowed more. I still think Kat’s story was well written even though I didn’t cry at it. Although one problem I have with Kat’s story is when she’s in Barcelona and she sees Alex and he tells her that he’s in heaven and all that stuff. I’m just worried that this will sway young women towards trusting supernatural experiences more than scripture. I don’t know if that’s Laura L Smith’s intention but it’s still concerning.
I don’t have much to say about Claire or Hannah’s story. Hannah is still single in this book, so there’s that. And we did get a bit more of Claire and Palmer’s friendship so I liked that. Speaking of Palmer, I’m a little confused by something. So Keegan tries to pressure Palmer again and she still won’t give in so he dumps her, at least that’s what I thought. Then Keegan starts sleeping with another girl whose name we find out is Carly, and when Palmer encounters Carly at a coffee shop she says: “Maybe you’re too busy screwing my boyfriend.” When I read that I was like: “Wait, I though you guys weren’t together.” I don’t know if this was a mistake or not but this raises a lot of questions if it isn’t a mistake, because Palmer starts liking another guy named Michael so isn’t she guilty of emotional cheating then? Then near the end of the book it’s declared that Palmer and Keegan are officially over. I don’t know, I’m confused.
So, I don’t have much else to say, I might have liked it more had I read it in a shorter period of time so maybe a reread is in order.