Review: Liked it
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2014
This book is a very sweet, but semi-dark tale of a girl running from her current life and finding something so much better where she least expects it. The writing was great. The character development was good. The problem is, I just didn’t LOVE the story. I liked it. I didn’t dislike it at all or otherwise I wouldn’t have finished it. But I just didn’t fall head over heels in love with it, and I really wanted to.Estelle/Star is in an abusive relationship. Her boyfriend, Derek, is an alcoholic who makes her life a living hell. She wants out but has always come back. Her mother supports the relationship. It’s just…not a great life. And that’s awful for a woman who deserves a great life. Estelle is sweet, but witty. Fun, but can’t express herself like she wants because of Derek. She finally makes a break for it and gets out. When her car breaks down, she didn’t expect to find a whole new family that would love and protect her. But that’s exactly what she found, plus a new love interest, Shane. Shane also has a past. A scarred, tragic past that still haunts him. They end up working and spending a lot of time together. Through this, as you can imagine, they fall in love. Her past comes back to find her, and you get to experience all of those twists and turns with them.For me, their relationship seemed too quick. Star didn’t want to tie him down because of their age difference of 9 years. She felt he had more life to live before he would need to settle. He wants her, she wants him but won’t let it progress, so she suggests being friends. It felt like a few pages later, they were in a full blown relationship. It seemed like the transition just happened too suddenly for my taste. It wasn’t instalove which is very nice, but it was close.It felt very predictable to me. Even without the mystery of what will happen, it’s still an interesting story. I just couldn’t get 100% into it. It also felt like the ending was much too rushed. Through all of the battles she endures, I wish it had drawn out more on the epilogue.That’s not to say that you, as a reader, won’t disagree with me entirely. I liked it. I didn’t love it. I didn’t feel drawn in or connected with the characters, and it didn’t really pull out the emotions like I usually expect a book should. I do want to point out that the writing itself is great. Lori is obviously talented. I would be more than happy to read anything else by Lori, because I really feel like she is a great writer. This story in particular just didn’t really do it for me. I hope you do go pick it up and give it a try though.<3 Erin