Review: Intense and Amazingly beautiful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
No matter how hard we try, any secrets we hold deep within will always come to the surface. No matter what Mia does, someday someone will discover the truth. But with her plan in action, she will never look back. She will never go back to the life she was raised in. She will never spend another day doing the things that she did to earn her keep. She will never again try to fix someone so incredibly broken. She will never open her heart again. She will never stay long enough to get comfortable.This book was highly intense and emotionally charge and quickly found it’s way into my heart.  It was unexpected. I had heard so many good things about this book before I started it. Now that I have read it, I can add my positive thoughts to this books reviews.When Mia left LA, she knew she had no choice. Taking the first buss out of town going anywhere. A new identity and a chance to start over. But she never has plans of making anything permanent.  She just needs to get as far away from her life. She just needs to learn how to fit in, make some money and then she will be gone. Using a new identity that she has created for herself, this is her chance.But what Mia, now Paige, never expects is that fitting in and feeling normal can feel freeing all on it’s own. She finds a hotel to stay in, but the caretaker sees something in her. Something he knows he can help. So he offers her a small job, a little pay and a place to rest her weary eyes. She finds a second job in town and what seems insignificant turns into one of the best things she could have. The closest to normal she may ever feel.But faced with real friends, a real life, how can she possibly flee this little town that has grown on her? With two guys wanting her attention she knows one of them is going to change everything she knows about her life. But of course, life can’t be normal for her. She can never fall for him. She is not normal. She can never tell them who she is. If they find out, she will lose their love and friendship as well.But Paige has bigger problems when her past catches up with her in this small town. Secrets can only stay burried for so long. What happens when the people she has grown to care for find out? Will they find out? What happens to her new budding relationship?This book was not hard to get lost in. Part of me wanted to stay in the pages and never let it go. The characters just grabbed me and made me want to find out so much more. It seems they all have scars of some sort, although none as deep or as big as Mia’s. I found myself struggling right along with Mia and her friends. I wanted everything to work out for grandpa and they boys. I wanted her new best friend to find comfort in her own home. I held out hope that Mia would never have to run again. I held out hope that not only had fate brought her to this town, but that it would surround her with those wanting to protect her.Monica James takes a very emotional journey through a town and through the life of one girl struggling to overcome her unorthodox childhood and the struggle to try and feel like a normal girl for a change. It was both heartbreaking and healing all at once.I cannot wait for more! This book was intense but amazingly beautiful in it’s own way. Not that I can say that Mia had the best of plans or that I agreed with them, but when she found herself in South Boston, I just had a feeling that it was where she was supposed to be. Monica James did a fabulous job with the characters and the feel of the story. Making it that much more clear in my mind and tugging at my heart just a little bit at a time.I could not put this book down and I would venture to say that you won’t be able to either!*I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review