Review: Not enough books like this.. believe me I've looked!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2014
First things first... DON'T judge this book by its cover!  The cover is pretty.  The story inside is not.This book is brilliant and unforgettable!  This is the exact type of book I'm always searching for with little luck.  I like stories where the relationships and characters are real, and they really have to work for it.  I like things to get messy and I like my heart to hurt a little.  Overall, I really just want to feel the story.This story is essentially about two very broken and damaged people who find each other during  an inconvenient time in their lives, sacrifice their relationship, and then face every obstacle imaginable on their way back to one another.  It's raw and real.  There are no rainbows or unicorns.  There is only life and sometimes life is ugly.This book reminded me of a mix between a twisted version of Sweet Valley High and Tarryn Fisher's Love Me With Lies series... weird combo, huh?  Those who know me know that any comparison to the Love Me With Lies series is a huge compliment from me and one I don't take lightly.  I don't even allow other books to touch this series on my bookshelf because I deem no other books worthy.  This book is the closest I have found to my beloved series/obsession.When you open this book, the first thing you are going to notice is that it is long.  I groaned a bit when seeing the length.  I immediately made the assumption that there was going to be many mind-numbing details that weren't needed (probably similar to this review, ha).  I was wrong.  Katherine Owen did something that I'm always wishing authors would do.  She basically took a trilogy, took out the unneeded cliffhangers and waiting and made it one book.Often times with books (long or short), I get bored easily and skim because I feel like I've read it all and am not easily surprised.  With this book I can honestly say I did NOT skim.. not even one word.  I was completely immersed in this story.  I was emotionally attached to the characters and the outcome of this book.  Aspects of the book were predictable at times, but overall the book was not predictable.  Many times during this read I went back and forth wondering if we would get a happy ending or not.  There were plenty of times that it seemed that there was no way these two could get a happy ending... at least not with each other, yet there were just as many times when it felt that it was fated for them to end up together.The characters (all of them) in this book were fantastic.  They were flawed, dark, and edgy.  I loved them!  They took the wrong paths and made mistakes and didn't always learn from them.  Our main two characters, Linc and Tally, have not had perfect lives.  The only thing that has really defined them is baseball and ballet.  They both excel at their talent and as fame enters the picture they  sacrifice themselves and each other to follow their passion.Now, after all my gushing, I will say this book is not without flaws (name a book that isn't), but to be fair I will mention them.  There are some editing issues with repetition and incorrect word usage that occasionally disrupts the flow, but in no way would I consider it a mess.  There is also insta-love as well as cliches such as "convenient" coincidences  as far as the plot was concerned and a serious lack of communication .  I'm pretty vocal about not liking insta-love, but the author somehow made it work for me.  As far as the "convenient" coincidences, they were usually in the readers favor so I can't really complain.  Overall, when it came down to it, the story was so powerful  that the above things really didn't hold much weight with me.This is definitely a must read.. This Much Is True!  (yeah I went there)