What do you think?
Rate this book
Newsroom PDX #1
Choose
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN ALL YOUR CHOICES SUCK?
As far as the student-run Eyewitness News is concerned, J.J. is a journalist. And if he wants to cover the Black Lives Matter protests, EWN needs him there. He’ll be a big name someday, the editors say.
J.J.’s father is a Portland police officer, however, and he’s demanding J.J. quit EWN, and quit covering the protests. Or leave home and lose his family.
And J.J. must choose: his family or his future.
Sometimes there are no good choices. And J.J. must choose.
The first in a new-adult suspense series.
Some sex. Bad language. Lots of politics. It’s Portland.
TW: attempted suicide.
As far as the student-run Eyewitness News is concerned, J.J. is a journalist. And if he wants to cover the Black Lives Matter protests, EWN needs him there. He’ll be a big name someday, the editors say.
J.J.’s father is a Portland police officer, however, and he’s demanding J.J. quit EWN, and quit covering the protests. Or leave home and lose his family.
And J.J. must choose: his family or his future.
Sometimes there are no good choices. And J.J. must choose.
The first in a new-adult suspense series.
Some sex. Bad language. Lots of politics. It’s Portland.
TW: attempted suicide.
- GenresNew Adult
Kindle Edition
First published February 4, 2021
42 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
L.J. Breedlove
113 books90 followersL.J. Breedlove is a former journalist writing about what she knows: complicated people, small towns, big cities, cops, reporters, politicians, assorted bad guys. Mystery novels.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 18, 2021
Choose (Newsroom PDX #1) first and foremost gives us insight on what we are going through today and gives us so much honesty while expressing many of the things that are going on in our world today. It shows us how much work as a nation we really need to do from the pandemic and the BLM movement.
Now getting into J.J Jacobs. He is a college student who wants to pursue journalism and being a reporter but his parents on the other hand dont want him to be anywhere near that. They want him to become a doctor or even a lawyer. While his father complains about not wanting J.J to go out there and do reports on the BLM movement he heads to his room and and watches the news. "When a Protest Documentary logo appeared. And then images - videos from the Eyewitness team, video from Cage - began. When the police marched out a curfew and began to push the protesters back the video played on. And on. J.J watched horrified as the police used batons on the protesters, then pepper spray. He watched them arrest people for doing nothing but standing there and chanting. But what he couldnt take his eyes away from was his father. His father, who had just lectured him about the protesters being thugs and rioters, was in the middle of the police attacking protesters. He watched helplessly as the police ganged up on one of the young men hed talk to earlier. He watched his father, his father, use a baton to beat another protester who was in the street not on the sidewalk"
This little snippet from the book gives you a look at what JJ is currently dealing with and what he has to figure out. Does he say anything to the people he works with at the Eyewitness or does he obey his fathers wishes and move on from the protests and journalism all together. In order to find out what happens throughout the rest of the book youll have to go and read it yourself!!!
Now getting into J.J Jacobs. He is a college student who wants to pursue journalism and being a reporter but his parents on the other hand dont want him to be anywhere near that. They want him to become a doctor or even a lawyer. While his father complains about not wanting J.J to go out there and do reports on the BLM movement he heads to his room and and watches the news. "When a Protest Documentary logo appeared. And then images - videos from the Eyewitness team, video from Cage - began. When the police marched out a curfew and began to push the protesters back the video played on. And on. J.J watched horrified as the police used batons on the protesters, then pepper spray. He watched them arrest people for doing nothing but standing there and chanting. But what he couldnt take his eyes away from was his father. His father, who had just lectured him about the protesters being thugs and rioters, was in the middle of the police attacking protesters. He watched helplessly as the police ganged up on one of the young men hed talk to earlier. He watched his father, his father, use a baton to beat another protester who was in the street not on the sidewalk"
This little snippet from the book gives you a look at what JJ is currently dealing with and what he has to figure out. Does he say anything to the people he works with at the Eyewitness or does he obey his fathers wishes and move on from the protests and journalism all together. In order to find out what happens throughout the rest of the book youll have to go and read it yourself!!!
May 24, 2021
3.5⭐️
This book features students and reporters from a university newspaper that is dealing with the BLM protests and show us the actions of the police against the protesters, often abusive.
JJ, a young man who has just started, is faced with a choice: do what he likes or withdraw from the front row of the news by his father’s orders who is a police officer.
In addition to JJ there are many characters with different stories but all with a common interest: reporting the news and reporting injustices.
At the end of the book we see how the next story is focus on the treatment of the immigrants, when a young woman shows up in the newsroom to leave her son with his father bc she is going to be deported.
Very current topics, with the COVID in the background make this book an interesting read.
Although at first it made me a bit confused with so many characters, when you get into the story it manages to hook you.
This book features students and reporters from a university newspaper that is dealing with the BLM protests and show us the actions of the police against the protesters, often abusive.
JJ, a young man who has just started, is faced with a choice: do what he likes or withdraw from the front row of the news by his father’s orders who is a police officer.
In addition to JJ there are many characters with different stories but all with a common interest: reporting the news and reporting injustices.
At the end of the book we see how the next story is focus on the treatment of the immigrants, when a young woman shows up in the newsroom to leave her son with his father bc she is going to be deported.
Very current topics, with the COVID in the background make this book an interesting read.
Although at first it made me a bit confused with so many characters, when you get into the story it manages to hook you.
November 8, 2021
loved this book
I loved the characters in this story, and the story itself was enlightening and very well written. The story is complete (no cliffhanger) but it does continue in another book. If it’s cheep I’ll get it. I recommend this story.
I loved the characters in this story, and the story itself was enlightening and very well written. The story is complete (no cliffhanger) but it does continue in another book. If it’s cheep I’ll get it. I recommend this story.
January 30, 2022
JJ's first task at the student newspaper is to cover the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland. What he sees forces him to choose between the cop/father he adores and the journalists and protestors he's growing close to.
The only genre that fits this novel is dystopian fiction – except the nightmarish world is our own. The characters and their individual situations may be fictional, but the setting is ripped straight from the headlines.
This contemporary novel delivers heartbreak and warm fuzzies in equal measure through its combo of stark horror and the joy of found family.
The only genre that fits this novel is dystopian fiction – except the nightmarish world is our own. The characters and their individual situations may be fictional, but the setting is ripped straight from the headlines.
This contemporary novel delivers heartbreak and warm fuzzies in equal measure through its combo of stark horror and the joy of found family.
October 5, 2021
Wow, just...wow.
This is a pretty amazing book. After living in Portland for fifteen years I was gone before the times this book references, often to very events that happened during the time this novel is set in. It is very well written. It is exciting, and heart warming, and heart breaking, and clearly draws the places it is set in. I recognized and could vividly remember every place it mentioned other than PSU itself and the particular ward of OSHU.
I think it will be almost as great a read for those who don't know Portland personally and for certain Portlanders, it will be magic.
I cannot recommend this book too highly, and as soon as I post this I intend to immediately go order the rest of the series for my Kindle. I imagine I will buy others by L.J. Breedlove as well.
This is a pretty amazing book. After living in Portland for fifteen years I was gone before the times this book references, often to very events that happened during the time this novel is set in. It is very well written. It is exciting, and heart warming, and heart breaking, and clearly draws the places it is set in. I recognized and could vividly remember every place it mentioned other than PSU itself and the particular ward of OSHU.
I think it will be almost as great a read for those who don't know Portland personally and for certain Portlanders, it will be magic.
I cannot recommend this book too highly, and as soon as I post this I intend to immediately go order the rest of the series for my Kindle. I imagine I will buy others by L.J. Breedlove as well.
January 1, 2022
A fun book to read
March 30, 2021
Excellent. Well-written, topical and insightful.
November 13, 2025
Choose is a work of fiction, written and published in 2016, but the plot might have been taken from tomorrow’s headlines. In the fall of 2016, Donald Trump was the newly elected 45th president of the United States. In the 2021 election, he lost to Joe Biden. Now he’s back in power once again, and much of what happens in Choose is actually happening in real life. The story may be a work of fiction, but it parallels and reflects reality so closely that it’s scary. If you’re a member of MAGA and a Trump wannabe dictator lover, you’ll have a love/hate relationship with the characters in this book. On the other hand, if you voted for Harris and the sanity she represented, you will definitely love the student news teams in this story. I tip my Stetson to L.J. Breedlove for telling this tale, a tale certain to arouse little Hitler’s ire if he reads this story.
I loved Choose so much that I went right out and bought the second book in the series, Don’t Go, which is said to pick up right where Choose ends.
I loved Choose so much that I went right out and bought the second book in the series, Don’t Go, which is said to pick up right where Choose ends.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews