Review: Sucks you into the lives of these characters easily
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 27, 2013
** spoiler alert ** Warning: Possible Spoilers...I'm pretty torn on this one, really hard to say what rating it deserves for several reasons. On one hand, I read it in 5 hours, straight through and liked the main character Amy, for the most part, her best friend Lily and the mysterious Nick. But...for some reason, there were parts of this book I found really unlikeable. That being said, I did enjoy it overall and it was a quick fast read that wasn't the usually teenage angst story but did portray many elements that make up these sort of novels as of late.Amy's trying to cope with losing her mother, being carted off by her rock star father to her aunt's house in some forgettable small town named Cherrybrook. Not the way Amy envisioned her life at all. Dealing with issues of drinking, sex and betrayal, she certainly makes a fine mess of her life. I found her extremely nave, probably because she'd been homeschooled for most of her high school career. I really didn't like Luke and Coral from the start and became highly suspicious of Luke's motivations with Amy almost immediately. This book takes place in a country where drinking is legal at 18 so some of these problems seem like a non-issue to the main character and some adults for most of the book.The parental units in this story were the definition of a FAIL. They practically gave the teens in the story a pass to do what they wanted, when they wanted, with whatever means possible. It was disheartening to see one of the parents blatantly allow teens to drink, have sex and have house parties without an inkling of responsibility of an adult in sight. I especially was confused because this parent seemed concerned with Amy when she spoke with her one morning and apparently was lucid too, but her actions later on painted her out as a very irresponsible person who didn't care what happened to herself or her daughter. In fact, almost all of the parents featured were afraid to intervene on any of these teens lives and were very lenient. I found that very hard to believe.The characters I liked a lot were Nick and Lily, though I believe neither got enough attention and were discarded frequently by Amy when they were truly the only ones who gave a care in the world for her. This was frustrating for me and had me kind of wanting to shake some sense into Amy. Nick was a gentlemen, though labeled easily by Amy as someone she could do without and too similar to her Rock Star father, who always put his family second to his music. Lily seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, but she didn't seem to like Amy all that much for most of the book, even though they were labeled as good friends. Amy obviously was a terrible judge in character, frequently seen throughout the story.Overall an easy, fast read that does kind of suck you in as Amy trudges through tragedy, denial, a broken heart and finally gains her wits back (thank goodness). Though a difficult tale to swallow, it was highly entertaining.I received this ARC from the Publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.