Review: For me a  3 1/2 but a very good read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2013
So initially I wasn't going to read this book, but I decided to give it a try. Usually, If I read a couple chapters I can tell if I want to go further and even though this didn't pull me in right away I was curious to see how it played out just by how it started.To be honest, this is one of my first young adult romances and it has made me open to reading more. It was also different because it was written from mostly a first-person point of view.Sometimes the words spoken by some of the characters didn't match up with their personality. I can also say the same for some of the reactions. Sometimes it just didn't feel natural. I also would have liked more detail and descriptions of characters. I felt like Celsi wasn't described well enough from the beginning(her features).This book was a mix between Gossip Girl and A Walk To Remember,  although it was probably more gossip girl. There is nothing wrong with that, I am just trying to describe the book as I read it. Celsi is poor and Luke is rich, but Celsi goes to a school where she is the poorest student and scholarships pay for her tuition. She is sent to give Luke his homework since Luke goes to school whenever he feels like. Also, Luke has a major illness that he must come to terms with and Celsi helps me through this. In the beginning, Luke makes fun of Celsi in front of his friends, but continues to see her when no one is around. Eventually Celsi becomes the only person Luke can turn to and talk to, so they become really good friends and then feelings start to develop. Celsi also has her own problems at home with her abusive cousin. So in the day she must deal with the students at school and at home she has to deal with her cousin.What I really liked was Celsi and Shazia reading fascination. It makes you feel like they are truly one of us with our fascination with reading, especially romance novels. I loved Luke! He grows the most throughout the book and it's appreciated that we get to see that process rather than it being rushed. Sometimes I felt Luke cared more for Celsi than Celsi cared for Luke, this however, doesn't take away from their romance. Personally, I enjoyed reading the story more from Luke's viewpoint. This just might be because unlike other romance novels we read from the hero's perspective equally as much as the heroines. As readers we get to understand their relationship and everything they had to get through to be together. This includes personal demons, friends, family and outside circumstances. We see their relationship grow over the course of a year and I think it was well done the way they didn't enter into a relationship right away. There was a slow but interesting buildup to both Luke and Celsi expressing their feelings and it felt real.  Not only that, but a lot of little things felt real and you could completely understand where the characters were coming from. It gave me moments of just smiling and laughing which is always nice when reading a book.I would read more from this author. I do think their can be improvements, but it was a very enjoyable read and I hope to see more from her in the future.