Review: Beautiful Story!!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2014
You know when you read a book that just takes you away to another time and another place. You lose yourself in the characters, the story, the pure brilliance of it. You never want it to end. It speaks to you. Whispers secrets that you long to hear. It fills up every piece of your cracked heart leaving you rendered speechless and filled with every emotion possible. Once again, I found a book that I was meant to read. I’m a true believer in fate as well as people and things crossing your path for a reason. Loving Mr. Daniels filled my heart, healed my soul and left me breathless.Ashlyn Jennings , a 19 year old twin loses her sister to leukemia. She’s broken, alone, and feels as though her heart has been ripped out of her body.“Because when people died, they took their voices with them. I wondered if they knew how much the people left behind would kill for their sounds one last time.”Her mother casts her aside, wanting no part of her. She is sent to live with her father—a man who has been absent most of her life to start a new life in Wisconsin where she would live with him and his family. She catches a train with her belongs and a box of letters left to her from her sister—along with their bucket list filled with all the things Gabby wants Ashlyn to experience.She meets Daniel Daniels on the train ride, and their connection is powerful. He is a 22 year old musician with eyes as beautiful as the sea. “Beautiful. Breathtaking. Brilliant. Blue eyes.” They both share a love of music and Shakespeare. He too has suffered unbearable pain losing his parents.Call it fate, call it destiny. They were meant to cross paths. Like a Shakespearean tale, they are meant to become star-crossed loves. Ashlyn meets Daniel at Joe’s Bar where he will perform with his band, Romeo’s Quest. His lyrics spoke to her, mystified, making her smile—something she hadn’t done for a long time.“I’ll be your best friend, darlin’, if you tell me your name,I’ll be your sunshine when you grow tired of the rain.You can walk away and I’m sure I’ll be all right.But just so you know, you’ll be in my dreams tonight…”And he says things like this:“Because when the world gives a person a smile like that, it should be the only activity those lips ever partake in.”Can you just die? He is beautiful, inside and out.They have a perfect night together, laughing, sharing secrets, dreams, hopes, and wishes that ends all to soon but not without several text messages back and forth.“Daniel: You’re beautiful, Ashlyn. I don’t just mean your looks. I mean your smarts, your tears, your brokenness. I think that’s beautiful.”Each time Ashyln completes something off the bucket list, she is to open a letter from her sister. It’s as if she’s besides her sharing in her most precious moments encouraging her to live in the moment. To cherish every second. To love deeply and appreciate life.But nothing is ever easy and when Ashyln heads to her first day of her senior year, when ashlyn heads to her first day of school, her dream of first true love is crushed and turned into a forbidden she learns that Daniel is Mr. Daniels—her teacher. I thought that this would be another taboo student/teacher relationship book, but I was so off the mark. This was a beautiful love story filled with hope, pain, and a bucketful of important rules to live by.The secondary characters in this story were perfect. I absolutely loved Ryan and Hailey the connection they all shared. They turned out to be the family that Ashlyn needed—their constant presence and support helped her through one of the most difficult times in her life.This is one beautiful journey you do not want to miss. Yes, it will make you cry ugly tears. Yes, it will break your heart. But it will teach you valuable lessons that we are so quick to forget. Never take a second for granted. Appreciate the moments you’re given. Never give up hope. “Say what you need to say.” Don’t hold back. Grab life by the horns and own it.“I want to be unafraid of the outcome of life. I want to remember to breathe in the laughter and cherish the tears. I want to dive into hope and land in love.”That is the most powerful message of all. Thank you Brittainy Cherry for putting so many things into perspective for me. Thank you for healing my heart. Thank you for helping me see that sometimes you have to lose in order to gain. This story will remain in my heart for the rest of my life.