Review: Emotional
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 28, 2013
Her Blood Ran Crimson is a suspenseful, romantic story that had my heart hurting for main character Maddie and desperately hoping she would find a way out of her terrible situation and into a better life.  When we meet Maddie, she's almost eighteen and counting down the days till she graduates from high school and can finally try to escape life with an abusive stepfather.  Maddie's stepfather Frank is a con man/criminal who forces his daughter to run "deliveries" for him, and especially since Maddie's mother's death three years earlier, her life has basically been a living hell.  The author effectively shows us the constant fear, inability to relax or feel safe anywhere, and feelings of low self-worth that come from living in an abusive home.  To make matters worse, Maddie is still haunted by the traumatic event that resulted in her mother's death, which we learn about gradually through the course of the story.Because of her situation, Maddie is isolated from most of her peers at school, but as the novel begins she meets a new student, Jase, who seems determined to get to know her.  Maddie initially shies away from Jase despite her attraction to him, but Jase is persistent and understanding, and gradually the two embark on a tentative relationship.  I loved seeing Maddie with someone who really cared about her, but at the same time, it was so painful to see her constantly doubting both Jase's and her own feelings and, really, not believing she deserves to be in a healthy relationship at all.  Maddie feels like she's broken and ruined because of what happened to her, and her pain is just so palpable that it's hard to read at times, but I couldn't stop reading either!  There's the constant threat that either Maddie will sabotage her own happiness with Jase, or that her stepfather and his criminal connections will end up interfering, and that sense of foreboding kept me eagerly but nervously turning the pages.Jase is an amazing, loyal, sensitive guy, and at times he seemed almost too good to be true, especially for a high-school boy.  However, he does make one major error in judgment which, while it made my heart break even more for Maddie, also made his character much more believable.  I was also very pleased that, after the dramatic events near the end of the novel, the story ended with great hope but also with realism.  Both Maddie and the reader know that life isn't a fairy tale, and that the road to recovery after trauma isn't a smooth or easy one; but we also know that Maddie now has the strength and support she needs to travel that road.