From that point the two forms a tentative friendship (which will eventually bloom into a relationship) based on the understanding that some things must always be held back and no questions asked. Catching glimpses of each other in class, Bridger orchestrates it so that Scarlet sits with him at lunch. They share two classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (Statistics which Bridger excels in, and Music, which is Scarlet’s domain). However her fears and insecurities prevent her from making new friendships or really trusting anyone.Įven with all of this drama, Bowen gives these two have a traditional college meet cute. By becoming Scarlet, which includes a completely new backstory about who she is and where she came from, she hopes to begin a new life away from the tragedy that is her father’s possible actions and the nightmare that is the pending court case.

Scarlet’s senior year is spent hiding out in her bedroom avoiding a town that now views her entire family as pariahs and the media who are constantly parked on her lawn. The previous year her father – a famous former professional hockey player and now college coach – has been accused of molesting young players. Meanwhile, when we meet Scarlet, new freshman at Harkness College, she has just changed her name in order to outrun a world that is crashing down on her. This means his life just got incredibly complicated, and very full. In an attempt to keep Lucy out of the Foster system, Bridger moves Lucy into his dorm room and proceeds to be her primary care giver.

His mother is a drug addict and his sister Lucy is no longer safe in her home. He’s left behind his partying and hockey playing ways from the year before because as he predicted, his bigger life problems have crashed in on his college experience. Bridger, who we met in The Year We Fell Down, is in his junior year of college studying for Bachelors and Masters Degrees simultaneously. Normally the topics at hand in The Year We Hid Away would be found in darker, grittier fiction – not the Romance Novel department.

I was completely absorbed in the world of Bridger and Scarlet When I finished reading The Year We Hid Away I commented on Goodreads that the struggles these characters face should make this one unreadable, but Bowen has a knack for writing believable characters in unbelievable circumstances.

The year we hid away