Review: Hearbreakingly hopeful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 9, 2013
If this is where the new adult genre is going, please let me stay on for the ride.Shelter Me is the story of a young woman and a young man growing up in a hyper-religious, almost-invasive church setting that permeates every single moment of their lives. I am a person who did not grow up in such a place, or even go to church much, so this book was a sociological education for me aside from being emotionally intense.I'm old, so I read things all blown up on my kindle, but if I weren't, this would probably be about 400 pages if it were in a trade paperback. Unlike many books that stretch to this length, none of it is wasted.The writing and editing are well done, nothing stuck out at me as a grammatical problem, or a plot hole so no worries there. The story is totally self-contained, and while I could see a sequel that featured secondary characters in the same world, Mari and Jacob's story is complete.A side note here - this book is written from the dual first-person perspective, which usually really bothers me. In this case, each character has a very clear voice, so it has a nice flow. This could have effectively been two books, one from each of the characters, but Mina Bennett has given us a great value by combining them.As far as the story itself, this is not your typical overly-cynical, hopeless, bleak-as-all-hell new adult story that ends with you wanting to take a shower and hug someone because at least your life isn't as horrible as the one in the book. This is coming of age told in the best way. Yes, there is pain and there is heartbreak and insecurity and all of the things everyone goes through, but it's all tinged with innocence and growth on the part of the main point-of-view characters. The heel of the story, Mark, is multi-dimensional and actually had my skin crawling a few times. I would say more about the bones of the story, but I don't want to give things away. The tale unfolds in a very satisfying way, so more details would just screw up reading it.I get the feeling Ms Bennett has some real-life experience growing up in a place like is described in this novel, because she just knows it too intimately for that not to be the case.Highly recommended for new adult, coming of age readers, and fans of heartbreaking (but realistic) contemporary romance. There are a few R-rated sex scenes that all propel the story forward, but nothing you haven't seen in a movie.