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on September 3, 2012
This book is unique in the YA genre, it stands alone in the current crop of books due to its disturbing theme. This is a book about child abuse, and it is very violent. There is more real violence in this book than you will find in a vampire novel, and it is more raw than The Hunger Games. Now this is an important topic because it is endemic in our culture, but this book doesn't take the right stance. The smart thing to do would have been to use a book like this to teach kids and teens how to deal with a situation like this, instead the book focuses on the main character being a powerless victim. She uses every excuse not to stand up and save herself. This is not a helpful message, it does not empower a reader who is also suffering to speak out and seek help.
Grammatically the book is a mess, it's almost painful to read in the beginning but eventually your brain will compensate because the story is interesting. And I will admit, it got to me I cried. I cried for the main character Emma and I cried in frustration as time and again she didn't take the opportunity to save herself.
Now everyone talks about the end, and yes it's shocking, but please remember it's a cliffhanger, this is book one in a series. I've read book two, it's better written, but the violence is still there and in someways worse - even more insidious. The second book is a bit self indulgent on the writer's part. It was not necessary to introduce new violent characters. What Emma went through in book one was enough for a lifetime, to introduce two new aggressors was just ridiculous. And yes, I cried again in book two.
This is definitely a book for older teens.
Grammatically the book is a mess, it's almost painful to read in the beginning but eventually your brain will compensate because the story is interesting. And I will admit, it got to me I cried. I cried for the main character Emma and I cried in frustration as time and again she didn't take the opportunity to save herself.
Now everyone talks about the end, and yes it's shocking, but please remember it's a cliffhanger, this is book one in a series. I've read book two, it's better written, but the violence is still there and in someways worse - even more insidious. The second book is a bit self indulgent on the writer's part. It was not necessary to introduce new violent characters. What Emma went through in book one was enough for a lifetime, to introduce two new aggressors was just ridiculous. And yes, I cried again in book two.
This is definitely a book for older teens.
on July 7, 2013
I liked (not loved) the beginning and end of this book. I thought it had great potential but there were multiple things about this story that had me feeling irritated by the end. I get that Emma has issues because of her home life, however some of them were contradicting with how she acted towards certain people. How easily she floated into the arms of another guy is just baffling considering how long it took for her to even be nice to Evan. Even the other characters were confusing (Sara and your feelings of whether or not Emma should date Evan!). I think the raving reviews must be from the teenage fan group of this book series because theres no way I can give it 5 stars. From reading the reviews about the next books in the series, the parts about this book that are so frustrating become even worse so I won't be reading on. If you are looking for fantastic stories in the NA or even YA genre, some great ones are Slammed (YA), Easy, Losing It, Wait For You, Beautiful Disaster, Sometimes Never, and Hopeless (YA).
on May 10, 2015
The plot of this book is so unbelievable and has a great many inconsistencies that I could not finish reading it. The characters were were either too perfect to believe or again too inconsistent to be true. The premise of the story was a good one, but the extremely poor plot development made it unreadable. I'm sorry I read half of it and wasted my time.
on August 19, 2014
-Possible spoilers ahead-
I just couldn't get into this book. I found myself struggling to complete it simply because I purchased it so I was going to finish it no matter what. I was torn between giving it two stars or three stars. There were moments in this book that were really great. But the main problem I had with this book is one that simply cannot be overcome, and that is the fact that I just did not care about the main character.
I cannot even recall what Emma supposedly looks like, besides having brown hair and almond shaped eyes - the latter I found out in the last quarter of the book. I'm not one for dwelling on a person's appearance but it would have been nice to have something to go on. I can't even visualize her because there is nothing to visualize. She is a void. She is supposedly breathtakingly attractive but doesn't know it (oh great another heroine with this complex) and every guy in the book wants to get in her pants. She is also amazingly smart and a superior athlete. She also has this uncanny ability to "blend in" but in every scene everyone in the school is watching her every move and she is always the topic of gossip. So apparently she's like a princess or something? I haven't been in high school in awhile but I'm pretty sure not even the prom queen has so many eyes on her watching and dissecting her every move. It was just a little annoying is all. Every place Emma went there were the same faceless people watching her and talking about her. I don't know about you but if that went on in my high school I would be more than a little creeped out.
It wasn't just Emma that I felt lacked dimension. All the guys in the book were interchangeable to me. They were all the same. Drew sounded like Jay who sounded like Evan who sounded like Jared and so forth. Although the main male protagonist Evan was definitely more detailed than Emma for sure. I could at least picture him, and I liked him as a character overall. It was hard to believe that he would want to continue to try to get to know Emma after being told off so many times but you have to give him points for his persistence.
I also enjoyed Sara's character. Again not too much to go on with her besides her having fiery red hair and a bubbly personality. Oh and she likes parties. There isn't too much backstory on how exactly she became best friends with the so-called "outcast" of the school Emma. I felt like knowing some of that would make their friendship more believable.
But back to Emma. Besides not being able to picture her I just couldn't root for her in the story. Aside from the brutal abuse she endured at the hands of her aunt of course. The basic premise behind her staying with her abusive aunt and nonchalant uncle was for her cousins sake. Wait, what? Even if I was a teenager I would have rethought that one. Her aunt Carol is a psychopath plain and simple. If she beats you to a bloody pulp over and over who is to say that she won't eventually do it to her own children when they get up in age? But instead you found it wise to let those poor children stay in a psychopath's house? I couldn't get behind this storyline just because I kept thinking this while I was reading it. I could understand it if maybe Emma was traumatized and kept thinking that maybe her aunt would change or something but nope. Emma knew she wasn't going to change and the author definitely didn't make Emma out to have some sort of psychological issue to explain her behavior. Again I believe the author wanted to get the point across that Emma was nothing but an empty shell devoid of emotion. Well you definitely made me believe that.
I don't know about anybody else but it felt to me that the scenes and stories that I wanted to hear about the author would gloss over in a sentence or two. Like Emma's trip to California for example. There was no description of the event. I felt like there should have been more to it, and that goes for many would-be scenes in the book. After awhile the book just became a flurry of random parties mixed in with one fancy party. Basically all that took place was lots of staring at Emma and random drunk guys hitting on her. I wish there had been different characters in this book. Not characters with all the same personality who are rich and apparently have amazing mansions. The author had no trouble describing furniture for paragraphs on end. I glossed over these parts. I would have loved detailed descriptions of the characters but instead we get the author going on and on about how amazing the furniture was. Whatever works for you.
Basically I was reading this book to see if Carol was going to get hers in the end. I knew this book was the start of a series however so I figured I wasn't going to get that satisfaction. I got about halfway through this book thinking I might buy the next one purely for that reason. But I have to be honest with myself and know that I just didn't care for this book. I'm usually not hard to please with books either. I saw the high ratings for this book but I wish I had read some of the reviews before purchasing. Just not my cup of tea overall. The book even ends with a cliffhanger and I have no urge to buy the next book. Pretty sad.
I just couldn't get into this book. I found myself struggling to complete it simply because I purchased it so I was going to finish it no matter what. I was torn between giving it two stars or three stars. There were moments in this book that were really great. But the main problem I had with this book is one that simply cannot be overcome, and that is the fact that I just did not care about the main character.
I cannot even recall what Emma supposedly looks like, besides having brown hair and almond shaped eyes - the latter I found out in the last quarter of the book. I'm not one for dwelling on a person's appearance but it would have been nice to have something to go on. I can't even visualize her because there is nothing to visualize. She is a void. She is supposedly breathtakingly attractive but doesn't know it (oh great another heroine with this complex) and every guy in the book wants to get in her pants. She is also amazingly smart and a superior athlete. She also has this uncanny ability to "blend in" but in every scene everyone in the school is watching her every move and she is always the topic of gossip. So apparently she's like a princess or something? I haven't been in high school in awhile but I'm pretty sure not even the prom queen has so many eyes on her watching and dissecting her every move. It was just a little annoying is all. Every place Emma went there were the same faceless people watching her and talking about her. I don't know about you but if that went on in my high school I would be more than a little creeped out.
It wasn't just Emma that I felt lacked dimension. All the guys in the book were interchangeable to me. They were all the same. Drew sounded like Jay who sounded like Evan who sounded like Jared and so forth. Although the main male protagonist Evan was definitely more detailed than Emma for sure. I could at least picture him, and I liked him as a character overall. It was hard to believe that he would want to continue to try to get to know Emma after being told off so many times but you have to give him points for his persistence.
I also enjoyed Sara's character. Again not too much to go on with her besides her having fiery red hair and a bubbly personality. Oh and she likes parties. There isn't too much backstory on how exactly she became best friends with the so-called "outcast" of the school Emma. I felt like knowing some of that would make their friendship more believable.
But back to Emma. Besides not being able to picture her I just couldn't root for her in the story. Aside from the brutal abuse she endured at the hands of her aunt of course. The basic premise behind her staying with her abusive aunt and nonchalant uncle was for her cousins sake. Wait, what? Even if I was a teenager I would have rethought that one. Her aunt Carol is a psychopath plain and simple. If she beats you to a bloody pulp over and over who is to say that she won't eventually do it to her own children when they get up in age? But instead you found it wise to let those poor children stay in a psychopath's house? I couldn't get behind this storyline just because I kept thinking this while I was reading it. I could understand it if maybe Emma was traumatized and kept thinking that maybe her aunt would change or something but nope. Emma knew she wasn't going to change and the author definitely didn't make Emma out to have some sort of psychological issue to explain her behavior. Again I believe the author wanted to get the point across that Emma was nothing but an empty shell devoid of emotion. Well you definitely made me believe that.
I don't know about anybody else but it felt to me that the scenes and stories that I wanted to hear about the author would gloss over in a sentence or two. Like Emma's trip to California for example. There was no description of the event. I felt like there should have been more to it, and that goes for many would-be scenes in the book. After awhile the book just became a flurry of random parties mixed in with one fancy party. Basically all that took place was lots of staring at Emma and random drunk guys hitting on her. I wish there had been different characters in this book. Not characters with all the same personality who are rich and apparently have amazing mansions. The author had no trouble describing furniture for paragraphs on end. I glossed over these parts. I would have loved detailed descriptions of the characters but instead we get the author going on and on about how amazing the furniture was. Whatever works for you.
Basically I was reading this book to see if Carol was going to get hers in the end. I knew this book was the start of a series however so I figured I wasn't going to get that satisfaction. I got about halfway through this book thinking I might buy the next one purely for that reason. But I have to be honest with myself and know that I just didn't care for this book. I'm usually not hard to please with books either. I saw the high ratings for this book but I wish I had read some of the reviews before purchasing. Just not my cup of tea overall. The book even ends with a cliffhanger and I have no urge to buy the next book. Pretty sad.
on January 17, 2014
Very bad ending. Can not believe you read the entire book hoping for some punishment for the torture this poor child suffered and there is none!
on May 7, 2017
This reminded me of Twilight without the vampires. Sad, unwanted, loner main female lead character. Super cute, unbelievably supportive, loving male lead character. The writing was redundant. Character experiences the same thing over and over and over without ever allowing anyone to help or snapping. I just wanted it to end. Read the preview for book two thinking now it'll move forward and evolve. Nope. I'm out.
on April 20, 2015
One of the best series I have read in a very long time. Finally a romance novel that is not just about sex. So many good characters.This is what true life is about, because we all have flaws. I don't want to say more without spoiling it for others. All I can say is that you will not be diasppointed with this series. Well written and a great story line. It would make a great movie or TV series
on July 28, 2014
The first part of the book seemed plausible but as violence and denial built the book became unbelievable. The critical mass of the book did not hold true.... first did mot want to seek help because of how it may hurt her cousins the opposite would be true second because she didn't want to leave her friend... there were a dozen things she could have tried but didn't report the abuse, try to move out with her mom or emancipation, confrontation with the abuser, seek counciling just to name a few.
on July 26, 2013
This book was amazing and sad and heart warming and most of all mind blowing. This story spoke deep within me. With problems with my parent myself this story was relatable in more ways than should. This story is the worst nightmare for a parent and a horrible triumph for a young adult. But with that being said it is also a book that moved me to tears at many moments.
This is a story of a young girl named Emily who has been dealt some pretty crappy cards in life. She has a father who died at a young age a mother who is an alcoholic and she is left with her aunt and uncle to live a better life. Sounds like things are looking up right??!! Not so much. Now she is stuck with an aunt who hates her guts and proceeds to beat her and an uncle who doesn't seem to care enough to do something about it. You follow Emma through her struggles just to make it through each and every day so she can go to college and get away from this hell. At the same time she falls in love and starts to discover just who she really is.
Beautifully written. I cannot wait to read the next book.
This is a story of a young girl named Emily who has been dealt some pretty crappy cards in life. She has a father who died at a young age a mother who is an alcoholic and she is left with her aunt and uncle to live a better life. Sounds like things are looking up right??!! Not so much. Now she is stuck with an aunt who hates her guts and proceeds to beat her and an uncle who doesn't seem to care enough to do something about it. You follow Emma through her struggles just to make it through each and every day so she can go to college and get away from this hell. At the same time she falls in love and starts to discover just who she really is.
Beautifully written. I cannot wait to read the next book.
