Stats:
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Favorite Quotes:
“…grief is slippery, a tangle of thorns that dig in so deep you don’t know where they stop and you start. You don’t know where you are. I think of Caleb... He has thorns too, and I wonder if he knows where his end and he begins.”
“…I knew he understood grief. I didn’t know that it had spilled out of him and into the world.”
“I feel his smile then. I don’t just see it anymore. It crawls inside me, curls up alongside all my grief. Confuses me, just like I said.”
“I want to have his hair in my hands while he holds me.”
“’Emma,’ he says, and it’s too soon to say it, way too soon, but what’s in my heart is in his too and he touches my face, cupping the side of my jaw and my name is a prayer in his voice, four letters of joy.”
Elizabeth Scott is one of those authors that just gets people. Most of all, she explores emotion, and she does a fabulous job in her writing, as you can see from the above quotes. I am never disappointed after any of her novels.
That being said, this story was touching. Heartbreaking. The premise hooked me right away. Emma’s mother is dead, being kept alive by machines because she is a human incubator. Emma is pissed. Dan, her step-dad, is keeping her mother alive so that the baby inside her can live. She talks to her mom at the hospital daily, keeps her up to date with things at school, but she can’t be in the same room as Dan for more than a few minutes.
Now, this perfect valedictorian is beyond caring. Until she meets the notorious car thief at her school, Caleb—a trifecta of gorgeousness with a lot of crazy.
Emma soon finds out that first impressions can be wrong. A common past of tragedy links the two together.
Things I loved:
- The romance that blossoms between the two. Well written, sigh worthy. Sweet.
- Relationships. Olivia, Emma’s best friend, is always by her side and knows her needs often before Emma does. Even though they grow apart because of Caleb, Olivia is a strong and dependable friend. Dan and Emma’s constant tension is so tangible it jumps off the page. Caleb’s entire family is beyond sad. They treat him like he’s not even there because of an accident they blame him for. I really connected with the characters and their feelings through the whole book.
- The way Emma’s mom is described. The memories they made are strung throughout the pages. Even though she’s not alive in the story, I felt what a great person she was. She hated peas. She put her wallet in her purse first. She made peanut butter and corn chip sandwiches. She loved better than anyone could.
- Emma’s end epiphany. To find out what this is, you have to read the book.
Rating: 4/5 Good Read!
