"... a beautiful tale of second chances and new beginnings." - Craves the Angst
AUTHOR: Kylie Scott
AGE GROUP: Young Adult
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2017
PUBLISHER: Kylie Scott
PAGES: Approx. 374
COPY PROVIDED BY: Purchased
MY GOODREADS REVIEW LINK
RATING: 5 Stars!
CLIFFHANGER: No
BOOK BLURB:
Being young is all about the experiences: the first time you skip school, the first time you fall in love…the first time someone holds a gun to your head.
After being held hostage during a robbery at the local convenience store, seventeen-year-old Edie finds her attitude about life shattered. Unwilling to put up with the snobbery and bullying at her private school, she enrolls at the local public high school, crossing paths with John. The boy who risked his life to save hers.
While Edie’s beginning to run wild, however, John’s just starting to settle down. After years of partying and dealing drugs with his older brother, he’s going straight—getting to class on time, and thinking about the future.
An unlikely bond grows between the two as John keeps Edie out of trouble and helps her broaden her horizons. But when he helps her out with another first—losing her virginity—their friendship gets complicated.
Meanwhile, Edie and John are pulled back into the dangerous world they narrowly escaped. They were lucky to survive the first time, but this time they have more to lose—each other.
5 “another first” Stars!
... absolutely perfect!
The Review:
This book was so honest ... and different! From the very first page, you just know you’re in for something amazing and Kylie Scott didn’t disappoint. Her characters were real, heartfelt and the slow build from strangers, to friends, to something-more between John and Edie tugged at every emotion inside me.
I love the young adult genre, but I’ve almost become disillusioned with it. Everything just seems the same ... however, this book? So incredibly different and wonderful and just full of all the things I love about coming of age stories and about young love.
With amazing dialogue, realistic, wonderful characters and an emotional story, this book was absolutely perfect!
Story/Characters...
Edie Millen - Seventeen years old. Middle class. Lives with single mother. Low self-esteem. Gets bullied. Goes to all girls preparatory school.
John Cole - Eighteen years old. Lives alone with older brother. Parents out of the picture. Popular. Confident. High school drug dealer.
Edie and John were complete opposites ... until they weren’t. Barely surviving a terrifying experience together at the mercy of a gun toting, meth-head, their separate worlds collided one horrific night, leaving them both scarred and irrevocably changed.
After that night, John decided to redirect his path from law breaker to straightforward high school senior, trying to get good grades and set a future for himself away from his brother and drugs. However, John's reputation preceded him and people wouldn’t let it go. I loved how the author authentically portrayed John. After facing death, John decided he needed to be different. He didn’t want to end up like the meth-head who changed his world forever. But people only saw him as the person he used to be, not the person he wanted to be. It was heartbreaking to read and really made me think about how I view people myself.
After that night, Edie is slowly unraveling. Like most teens, she suffers self doubt, and even more so after what happened to her, but she was witty and had such amazing insight. Her character quickly became one of my favorite in this genre, ever! The safe world she lived in was shattered and a part of her was left in that convenience store. She sees the world through a hazy numbness and she questions everything and it’s purpose now.
When Edie decides to leave her all girls school and join public school, John and Edie’s worlds collide once more, setting in motion a friendship that would save them both.
With Edie’s strength, John is able to stay on the path he’s chosen and with John’s patience and understanding, Edie gets to explore life a little more vigorously, all the while being reigned in when things get too chaotic. And I loved that even while John was changing and seeing the world differently, the author kept his edge, his sexiness and his mystery. They were the perfect balance to each other and watching them come to terms with what they’d been through was painful, honest and emotional. And I loved every second of it.
And that ending? Spectacular! Like I said, Edie quickly became one of my favorite heroines, in this genre. The way she stood her ground and protected what she loved showed her bravery and her loyalty. I just loved that ending!
As always, this author gives the reader the most amazing side stories, this book being no different. Hang and Anders added a little bit of needed levity to the intensity and it was fun watching them deny what they knew was brewing between them.
The Wrap Up:
This book touches on a whole host of difficult issues. From insecurities and self-doubt, bullying, fear, stereotyping and violence to true, honest love, trust and self awareness. It shows how hard it can be to shake bias and preconceived notions and be the person you want to be instead of who you are assumed to be.
You can tell Kylie Scott dug deep and really pulled this story and these characters from her heart and soul. It’s a beautiful tale of second chances and new beginnings. I just finished this book and could seriously go back, right now, and reread it again and again! This is one that I know I’ll go to when I need a quick fix of sweet, real and thought provoking.
P.S - If by some chance the author reads this, I totally wouldn’t say no to a John POV! Like, seriously, I’d be the first in line! So many times, I just NEEDED to know what he was thinking. So, yeah, get working on that asap, please. ;)
Connect with the Author Online...
ALTERNATE COVER IMAGE and INFO...
Just FYI, the author recently changed the cover.
<--- This is the original cover to TRUST, but she wanted a more authentic cover that better represented the book and it's story, so the cover displayed above, is now the correct cover image.
....
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.