Review: My first Carey Heywood book, definitely not my last!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 14, 2014
Complimentary copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.Sawyer is just a child when she loses her parents to a plane crash and is sent to live with her grandmother. Within forty-eight hours of arriving at her grandmother’s home, she finds herself traveling across the country to live with a stranger for the summer, her godmother whom she has never met. That summer, and every summer after that is spent with her godmother Wendy, and her son Jared. When the summer is over, she is sent to a boarding school in Vancouver, B.C. where the headmistress, Carmen, cares for her. When Sawyer receives word that her grandmother has passed away and that she must take care of the estate, she finds that her past is full of mystery, and that what she had perceived as the truth for her entire life, may have been far from it. Sawyer never understood why her grandmother sent her away to live, could it have been out of the most unselfish love one could give? In order to move on with her future, Sawyer must find answers to the questions that have been plaguing her her entire life.Jared has known Sawyer since they were both kids. Not only are they the best of friends, but after Sawyer’s roommate Sarah moves out in preparation of getting married, Jared moves in and becomes her roommate. Unlike Sarah, Jared is looking for a relationship. Once he falls in love, he’s in it for the long haul. After the loss of the baby that his wife was carrying, he finds himself divorced and conflicted over his feelings for Sawyer. He knows that they would be good for each other, but can Sawyer get past her desire for simply “friends with benefits” status with the opposite sex and pursue and actual relationship? When Jared and Sawyer take their relationship to a physical level, can they see eye to eye on where they want the relationship to lead, or will that be their undoing?I absolutely loved Jared. He’s really the embodiment of the book boyfriend. Sweet, yet not afraid to pursue what he wants, willing to make sacrifices, hot, snowboard instructor, childhood friend…he has all the makings of a BBF poster boy. Sawyer has quite obviously, and justly, been damaged by the circumstances of her upbringing; however at times it feels like maybe she just not willing to move forward. She makes a definite progression throughout the book and it is quite obviously due to her relationship with Jared. He is the one that really made this book interesting.Sawyer Says is a well written, engaging, quick read. It is a companion novel to the Her and Him books, however it can be read as a standalone. While it is not necessary to have read the other books before this one, it might make the relationships with secondary characters a little clearer than if you hadn’t. While Sawyer Says was a very good book with well-developed characters whose relationship was sweet with just the right amount of steam, it didn’t knock my socks off. I enjoyed the book, however there really wasn’t anything to set it apart from other NA reads of the same type. This is the first book that I have read by Carey Heywood and it certainly won’t be my last, and I will definitely read Her and Him to find out more about the characters.