Review: intense!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 17, 2013
SPOILERSLike other reviewers I found this book to be an intense roller coaster ride of emotions, careening from despair to happiness and back again before ending on a hopeful note. It was not your typical YA book with an HEA. The happy ending came from within the heroine and had nothing to do with a man. This was a great choice on the author's part because Cassidy escaped abuse on multiple fronts to get there. At first, Ms. Dodd made me think that the Seth was going to be the heroine's great salvation, but he turned out to be just as bad as her mom and step dad. The real hero in this story was Cassidy's dad. Loved him!One reviewer took exception to the fact that she let her mom control her despite being 18. Cassidy's mindset throughout most of the book was very appropriate for a young woman who grew up in an abusive household. It seemed so simple that she would tell her mom, "Shove it, mom! I'm 18 and I'm going to stay with my dad." But Cassidy's mom had almost two decades of tearing her daughter down until she didn't know how to stand up for herself or stand up to her abusers. Then, Seth came along and rebuilt Cassidy, but not to be an independent young woman. He rebuilt her to fall prey to his abuse. Because of these circumstances it was very appropriate for the story to end with Cassidy rebuilding her life as a single woman, just causally dating.One point of exception for me: Why was her dad paying child support for an 18-year-old?