Review: A GREAT MC READ
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2014
Where to start, I went into this book expecting it to be something that it wasn’t. I thought it was going to be a mc book, quite gritty and raw. What I got was sooo much more. This book follows Elle and J as they try and navigate through life the best way they know and can.Elle likes to put up barriers and has many different faces that she shows depending on the situation that she is in. Elle is a great female lead, she may be closed off but she is loyal without fault, she loves the people that are in her life and she will do anything for them. Throughout the book we learn the many layers to her, she seems to become a totally different person with J’s help.J has the whole mysterious bad boy persona, but like Elle only shows people what he wants them to see, the only person that he seems to let through his barrier is Elle and he doesn’t seem sure as to why that is. We get to see the closed off J, who has to leave and “do business” and then we see the soft side of J that makes him really lovable. “I know it does. I told you I would never hurt you and I meant it. I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for you, and I didn’t even know I was waiting. Since I saw you in Checks that first night, you’ve had me. I’m yours. You can break me, Elle.”Throughout the book, we learn more about who both Elle and J are, we learn about their pasts and what they want from their futures. We watch them grow, together and independently. We see them open up to each other and let their feelings out. “When im with you, my heart is bare, raw, open. It wouldn’t take much for you to rip it out if you chose.”There are many other characters in this book, that shouldn’t be overlooked. We have the best friends Chris and Aaron, they are loyal to Elle and you can feel how much they all love each other. Chris and Aaron had me laughing at many point with the funny banter they have amongst them all and the three way phone calls they share, to help Elle calm down. We also have a few others like Larry, Jesse and Jose who Elle works with and are also friends to her, but they don’t know the real Elle as she likes to say.Elle volunteers at a teen program, here she seems to give advice and become somewhat of a confidant and friend to the teens there. She helps a couple of the girls to make sure they are safe and she tries to help a few of the boys there. She soon find that there is problems with one the kids at the program and doesn’t know what to do about it.One text changes everything for her, she goes to help and things go wrong. The ending to this book, was so unexpected and totally shocked me, although it probably shouldn’t have. Elle would do anything to protect someone she cared about. Well done Emily Eck on a fantastic read. Come on book 2.Stacey