Review: Good YA Contemporary Romance.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 3, 2013
(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis as part of the Letters from Nowhere blog tour.)17-year-old Karen is a gymnast. Her plan had been to go to college and compete as a college gymnast, but then her parents died, and everything changed.Trying to come to terms with her grief, and trying to work out what she really wants to do with her life, Karen isn't ready to give up her dreams of being an Elite gymnast and competing for her country, even though her parents wanted her to compete in college gymnastics instead.Can Karen be an elite gymnast? Can she come to terms with her parent's deaths and stop it from interfering with her training? And is now really the time to become interested in boys?This was a nice YA contemporary romance story, combined with the passion and devotion of elite gymnastics.Karen was a great character. I really felt for her having lost her parents the way she did, and I really had my fingers crossed that she could pour that pain into gymnastics rather than let it take over her life. It was so disappointing that something like this could not only take her family from her, but also take her future career too.I personally didn't think much to Karen's grandma who seemed happy to just throw money at her in order to get her to go away, so it was good that Karen had the support of her coach and gym-mates.The romance in this book was slow and sweet, although I did wonder what trouble Karen was getting herself into by being attracted to the boy that she lived with. If things hadn't worked out for them that could have been a seriously sticky situation, and I'm surprised that she didn't worry about how inappropriate it was for her to be going out with a boy that she lived with, seeing as she's still a minor she could have been forced to move out because of that!I think I preferred the gymnastics part of the story to the romance strangely enough. I loved how passionate Karen was, how much effort and work she put into achieving her goals. I loved how much detail there was in the story in relation to the gymnastics, and it really showed how much time the author must have taken to research the topic, right down to Karen's specific gymnast diet.The ending of the story was okay, and I liked the direction that Karen was heading in, although I still don't think that she was 100% ready for the challenges that lay ahead.Overall; a good YA contemporary romance set in the world of elite gymnastics.7 out of 10.