Rating: PG
Genre: Contemporary
Score: ❤❤❤
Page Count: 173
Stand Alone
Publisher: Coastal Escape Publishing
Published: October 17th, 2016
High School senior Lily Rhodes has been in love with her brother’s best friend nearly all her life. When nineteen year old Jake joins the Marines and is shipped overseas, she worries she’ll never see him again, and wishes she’d been braver before he left. Lily vows that if Jake comes home, she’ll tell him how she feels. But when Jake is injured by an IED and is discharged from the Marines, he comes home changed, bitter and broken. Despite the fact he's loved Lily for the past three years, he no longer feels worthy of someone like her. Not one to back down from a challenge, Lily knows the best things in life are worth fighting for.
Review:
PROS:
1. Special thanks to Sara from YA Bound Book Tours for sending me an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! When I first saw the cover, I thought it looked like it could be a really cute and lighthearted read which was just the kind of book I was looking forward to at the moment when I started reading this book. I thought the synopsis sounded interesting and even though I usually avoid such lovey-dovey romance novels, I decided to give this one a chance and see how I liked it. It's always good to branch out when it comes to your reading material and I took a chance on this one, getting out of my comfort zone to do so. Here's the review:
2. I think the concept of this book was quite interesting. The author wanted to blend a few different genres and subjects together that could potentially not end up working all that well together and I applaud Charity for wanting to create something different that you don't usually see. I had a few problems with it, however, but we'll get into that a little later in this post. For now, I'll say that I liked the characters enough to want to stick with reading their story and I thought Lily was a very hard-working young girl. She didn't complain when it came to taking care of others and instead did it because it was the right thing, not because she felt guilty or sorry for someone. She put other people first before her own needs and I think that was a great quality for her character to have.
3. I liked the plot and thought it was a good fit because of the length of this little book but was a little more interested when a new story popped up that was hidden between the pages. It added some interest which I liked and kept the story going. It was a quick read and lighthearted one that dealt with a wounded soldier, adding in a cute life-long crush between friends with an overall high school vibe. It was an easy book to read and stick to.
CONS:
1. While I liked the subject matter in this book and appreciate that genre blending was a major part of the book, it felt like too much crammed into so few pages. At some points, it felt a little too far fetched with the things that were happening. The characters seemed a little too young for me and I think if they were maybe just a couple of years older, their characters would have felt a little more believable given the context of the story.
2. The timeline also felt rushed. Since it felt like Jake healed from his injury a little too quickly and easily, the two main characters confessing their love for each other in what felt like ten pages, Lily's brother coming home suddenly, and a few other things, it just felt like too much was happening too quickly. Add in that there was barely any conflict, Jake and Lily didn't really have a reason not to be together and thus made me feel a little bored with their romance, it just wasn't my cup of tea. I think if the book had been longer and a few things were paced out a little farther, it would've have been a solid four-star book for me.
You Can Purchase The Book Here:
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About The Author:
By the time Charity was twelve, she was sneaking her mother’s Harlequin romances and reading them in secret when she was supposed to be asleep. Teased throughout middle school and high school for the bodice ripper covers on the books she openly read in class, she knew that one day she wanted to write her own happily-ever-afters. Subscribe to Charity West's newsletter!
Author Links:
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I hope you all enjoyed this book review! Read on, bookworms! See you in the next chapter!
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