We Own the Night by Ashley Poston Pages: 238
Published by Bloomsbury Spark on June 28, 2016
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary
Source: eARC from Publisher
"Happy midnight, my fellow Niteowls..."
As a candy store employee by day, and mysterious deejay "Niteowl" by night, eighteen-year-old Ingrid North is stuck between rock 'n roll and a hard place. She can't wait to get out of her tiny hometown of Steadfast, Nebraska (population three hundred and forty-seven) to chase her dreams, but small-town troubles keep getting in the way. She can't abandon her grandmother with Alzheimer's, or her best friend Micah--who she may or may not be in love with.
But for one hour each Saturday, she escapes all of that. On air, she isn't timid, ugly-sweater-wearing Ingrid North. She's the funny and daring Niteowl. Every boy's manic pixie dream girl. Fearless. And there is one caller in particular-- Dark and Brooding--whose raspy laugh and snarky humor is just sexy enough to take her mind off Micah. Not that she's in love with Micah or anything. Cause she's not.
As her grandmother slips further away and Micah begins dating a Mean-Girls-worthy nightmare, Ingrid runs to the mysterious Dark and Brooding as a disembodied voice to lean on, only to fall down a rabbit hole of punk rockstars, tabloid headlines, and kisses that taste like bubble tea. But the man behind the voice could be surprising in all the right, and wrong, ways.
And she just might find that her real life begins when Niteowl goes off the air.
We Own the Night is the second book in the Radio Hearts series by Ashley Poston. The Radio Hearts series is a young adult contemporary romance series. I never read the first book in the Radio Hearts series, and I wasn’t lost so I believe each of these books can be read as standalones. I believe they each focus on a different member of the friend group. We Own the Night was a super cute, fun and heartwarming story. I really enjoyed it and when I was done I had a big smile on my face. My only wish is that the book was little longer because I wanted the fun times to keep on going.
We Own the Night is Ingrid’s story. Ingrid is just an ordinary teenager that has a secret identity- on Saturday nights she becomes niteowl- a radio talk show host. I absolutely loved watching her become niteowl. Her radio hosting stints were my favorite part of the book. I felt like it was when Ingrid could really let loose and shine. It was great to watch her gain the confidence to bring that aspect of herself over into her real life. I really felt for Ingrid in real life. There is a bit of bullying in We Own the Night, so if that is a trigger for you, be forewarned. But I thought it was a great theme to show Ingrid’s growth as a character. Her journey was an emotional one, and not always fun emotions, but overall it felt so, so satisfying to me.
I enjoyed the friends group as well. I didn’t love all of the characters, and I found their friendships to be very realistic and indicative of high school. Friends bicker, and fight and there are frenemies. It made me want to go take a look at the first book and see who it was about, because I have a feeling that their story would be just as fun and satisfyingly as Ingrid’s was for me. If you are a fan of young adult novels that feature realistic friends (where you won’t love everyone), and a great journey of self discovery and character growth, then I think you will really enjoy We Own the Night! This was a really good story.
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