Review: A cute read, but lacking in depth.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
When InkSlingerPR first posted this review opportunity and I read the blurb, I was instantly curious. I really like the whole secret identity, running away from your past to make a new future storyline. However, if it's one thing Elliot (Elle) learns, it's that you can't outrun your past. It always seems to creep up on you, whether you want it to or not.I felt bad for Elle's character. She made decisions that really affected her family and now she must live with the consequences. Instead of staying in NYC to help them pick up the pieces, she flees to Miami to start over. In starting over, Elle just wants to do her new job and keep under the radar. She has to be careful, as her family's story is a very public one. She knows that if word got out, she would lose her fragile hold on this new life. Elle's new job happens to be teaching economics at a privileged private school and one of my favorite parts was watching her interact on campus. As a teacher myself, I can't imagine going to a cocktail party to welcome to faculty back to school. That is where Elle sees just how elite this school is. She finds teaching to be a challenge- whether it be getting to class on time wearing the right clothes or dealing with spoiled rich kids.She lives on campus with two fellow teachers, Gwen and Waverly. Gwen is the more logical of the two as well as the more practical. I liked her a lot more than the outgoing, feisty Waverly. She seemed like a better match for a friend than Waverly did. Waverly was ok, but she seemed quite superficial and definitely a wild child. Both were there for her when she was hurting and really ended up being good friends who cared about her.My favorite character however would have to be Luke. Elle first meets him at the party and she thinks he is just the guitar playing musician. However, after running into him at school, it turns out he is actually a teacher as well. The last thing Elle should be thinking about while here is a relationship and she knows it. Yet, Luke is kind, sweet, and fun- AND he happens to be her faculty mentor. The two are attracted to one another, yet Elle has no intention of letting the cat out of the bag about her past and it seems Luke as a secret of his own.Elle knows having any kind of relationship with him would be wrong, especially since it would be built on nothing but lies, but Elle starts to believe in her new identity and her new life. Why shouldn't she be able to start over and have this new Elle be the real one?I really liked how the chapters opened with an email from Elle's younger sister, Aria, who has been left in NYC. I think Henry did a good job of showing you how Elle's absence really affected her family and how her sister puts on a brave face, but really feels anything but. I felt these emails played a pivotal role in the novel, showing us readers that while Elle may be in Miami assuming a new life, her past is constantly at the forefront of everything.I found Sweet Nothing to be a cute read. I felt it was a bit lacking in depth and while the characters were likeable, they didn't really stand out or strike me in the way I would have wanted them to. I also felt Luke and Elle's relationship progressed faster than I would have liked, especially since the two have withheld quite a bit from one another. I do think Elle handled Luke's secret quite well after the initial drama of finding out the way she did. After Luke's secret was revealed, we really saw the internal battle Elle faced at opening up to him and coming clean about her own. Relationships wont last if they are built on lies and I think Elle must subconsciously know that the past will always come back to haunt you.While Henry doesn't leave us with a cliffhanger, she does end the book with the intent of continuing Elle's story. I think Elle has a lot that she will need to face head on and she realizes that it's about more than just her and that she can't run from her problems anymore.