Review: Sweet Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 2, 2014
Torn was a pretty quick read. It’s a story about two best friends, Jackson and Skylar, who grew up together but in recent years have grown apart. This book is set in their senior year of high school. At first, I really didn’t like Jackson at all. I honestly thought he was a big jerk. I understand the history between Jackson and Skylar, but I felt like she should have just given up on him. I mean, he is in the popular crowd, plays football, and dates a bitchy cheerleader.  He acts like Skylar no longer exists. It seems once he gained popularity, he just dropped her like a bad habit. However, she hangs on to what their friendship was and longs for him, even with his rude treatment.As the story goes on, he realizes he is unhappy with the direction his life is going. He doesn’t like his girlfriend, Amber, at all. She is just convenient to him at this point. He begins to realize how much he misses Sky and starts to get back in her good graces. Not like it takes much. I felt like there should have been a lot more groveling involved. There are times, that his true personality shines through and he sticks up for her. I was glad to see his gradual change. I will admit that there were times that he melted my heart. He turns out to be a great guy and I’m glad that Skylar and he get together.These two basically know everything about each other. They have always been the other’s life (not counting the past few years.) When they decide to pursue a more than friends relationship, they are already in love, but don’t know it yet. Their love for each other is deep and strong, and seemingly unshakable. BUT, they have each lost one parent due to different circumstances and it affects them.I feel like this book could have been great. However, it felt a little jumpy to me. I got confused on the timing a few times and had to go back a few pages to try to clarify. The characters are pretty solid. They even had a steady growth. Of course, these are high school kids, so there is a bit of back slide, but you have to make mistakes in order to learn and grow. That is exactly what happened here. It is also told in the dual POV of Skylar and Jackson. While I think the author did a pretty good job, there were times where Jackson sounded a bit like Skylar. All in all, this is a good book. I do think it would be a great book if the author could rework some of the jumpiness and some of Jackson’s POV. It honestly has a great story line and characters. This is a mature YA novel, as there are sexual scenes.