Such a Rush (Jennifer Echols)

Title: Such a Rush

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Length: 325 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Leah has lived in trailer parks near airports all her life, taking care of her irresponsible mother. When they move to yet another trailer park in Heaven Beach, South Carolina, Leah gets a job at the local airstrip and finally finds a way to escape. She saves up enough money to buy a flight lesson from Hall Aviation, and the rush of her first trip up changes her life. By her senior year, she’s been offered a job flying advertising banner planes for Mr. Hall. But when he dies suddenly, Leah’s future as a pilot is put into the hands of his teenage twin sons who have inherited the company. Adrenaline junkie Grayson not only blackmails Leah into continuing to work for a seemly-doomed company, but he also has her pretend to date his brother. Leah may resent people calling her trash, but she can’t deny that her life has gotten rather messy.

You guys all know my love for Jennifer Echols by this point. And honestly, my biggest critique about this book is that I’ve read it and now have to wait a while for the next Echols book to come out. I’m not sure I can handle that kind of wait again! Alright, enough with the melodramatics; let me tell you why I loved this book.

Leah is a disaster. The story starts when she’s 14, already adult enough to take care of all the finances and decide that she doesn’t want to turn out like her mother. Leah needs to figure herself out, and this story is in a lot of ways about how she saves herself. The novel starts a little slow, explaining all this, but it’s necessary to get a good feel for Leah before the boys show up in their delicious story-dominating ways.

Oh the boys, swoony as always. And twins, my favorite kind! Both Grayson and Alec have hidden motives in their return to run Hall Aviation. While Leah has seen them from afar the last three years, they’ve never really interacted. But now that their dad is gone, the boys are forced to be the adults, just like Leah. So they’re figuring out their lives as well. Of course it gets complicated, and of course Echols knows how to write wonderful romance.

The book itself is quite a rush. Leah wants to be a pilot; it’s her escape and her chance to get that adrenaline rush. I learned a lot about flying and planes, and loved the way they worked metaphorically throughout the story.

The only thing I would change about this book? The girl on the cover’s hair is straight, whereas Leah’s is decidedly curly. But I’ll excuse this slight change because I love that on the back of the book, book bloggers, just like me, are quoted for reviews. It’s clear I should use words like “captivating” and “mesmerizing” more often in my review. This I will work on!

Check out this fun interview with Jennifer Echols!

The One That I Want (Jennifer Echols)

Title: The One That I Want

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Length: 359 pages

Rating: 4/5

Gemma has just made majorette at her school, and is shocked when the kicker for the rival football team notices her at their respective training camps. Max is adorable, and Gemma is utterly confused when he asks out her so-called best friend Addison instead. Worse, Addison drags Gemma along on their date. The more Gemma gets to know Max, the more she likes him, but how can she tell him without selling out her friend?

Let’s bullet point this review:

·         I have yet to meet a Jennifer Echols’ book I did not enjoy. And this one, she sent to me autographed. There might have been squealing when the postman came- I’ll never tell.

·         This is a book primarily about misunderstandings and learning to say what you really feel. The infuriating but endearing Max teaches Gemma that the easy way isn’t always the best way.

·         Finally, a book about a girl losing weight I didn’t hate. Gemma loses weight to feel comfortable as a majorette, and everybody- from her closest friends to her mom- doesn’t understand it. The way each character reacts to her weight loss shows how flawed their relationship with Gemma is, and the book focused more on fixing relationships than on the typical, “hate yourself heavy/love yourself thin” theme I see in far too many books. Gemma has already accepted herself as a person, and Max helps her realize that those around her need to accept her too instead of holding her back. So really, this book is less about a girl losing weight, and more about a girl untangling the mess in her life and setting things right.

·         Max: “he makes girls mad.” Clueless at times, but swoon-tastic and tells it like it is, even when it gets him into trouble. How could you not root for him?

Max is the one that Gemma wants…but will they finally resolve all the misunderstandings keeping them apart? You better read to find out- the paperback comes out TOMORROW!

Love Story (Jennifer Echols)

Title: Love Story

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books (Simon & Schuster)

Length: 243 pages

Rating: 4/5

Erin wants to be a writer. She gave up her inheritance (a multi-million dollar Kentucky horse farm) so that she could major in creative writing rather than business at her dream university in New York. On the first day of critique in her writing class, she pours her heart into a story about starcrossed lovers on a Kentucky horse farm, starring the stable boy who was given her inheritance. Then he turns up in her class, and so begins a war of words in which Erin and Hunter try to come to terms with their past through the stories they share in class. Can Erin write herself a happy ending?

Oh Jennifer Echols and her screwed up characters who are perfect for each other…you pulled me in again and wouldn’t let go! What I love/hate about her books is that the characters are realistically flawed, which causes tension, drama, and misunderstanding and fuels the plot. Hate because you want to shout, “get over yourself/why are you being such an idiot?!” And love because it causes romantic tension and the characters always work it out in the end and are better people for it.

What’s great about Love Story are the snippets of the stories written by the characters interspersed throughout the book. Erin’s stories are all based on something in her past, which allows the reader and Hunter to get to know her better. (Side note: it bothered me just a little that Erin only wrote about what she knew. If you want to be a writer, you have to be brave and branch out a little! But I understand that this was both a plot devise and a way to show that Erin was still inexperienced, so I’ll forgive it). I would have liked more of Hunter’s stories, written to drive Erin crazy though- those were great!

What’s also great about Love Story is Hunter. You can’t have a good romance without a great male character, and Hunter is handsome, knows how to work with his hands, and carries a torch for Erin, despite all the dumb stuff they’ve done to each other.

This is your book if you’re an English major looking for a good love story, or let’s be honest, anyone looking for a good love story. 

Going Too Far (Jennifer Echols)

Title: Going Too Far

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Length: 245 pages

Rating: 5/5

I feel obliged to admit I’ve got a total girl-crush on Jennifer Echols. I tend to love everything she writes, and Going Too Far was no exception. It seems like a simple enough premise: bad girl, good boy. Meg is a reckless teen dying to get out of town. One night she goes too far and her punishment is riding the night shift with a play-by-the-rules rookie cop, John. How could they not start to fall for each other? But both have a lot of baggage holding them back, especially the fact that John has chosen to stay behind in the tiny town Meg can’t wait to escape.

Things I loved:

1.     Characters: I dare you to read this book and not love John. I also dare you to not like Meg. She’s spunky and witty and flawed. Yeah she’s got issues, but don’t we all?

2.      Witty dialogue: the story happens in a pretty short time frame, so there’s a lot of dialogue between Meg and John as they ride around. It’s great because it’s not beautifully styled. Sometimes the dialogue jumps around just like it would in a real conversation. Maybe it was because I had just watched Rookie Blue, but the dialogue made the book kind of like a TV show or movie running through my head. It was great and I had a lot of trouble putting the book down.

Things you should know before reading

1.    If this was a movie, it would probably get a PG-13 rating. Sex is alluded to on page one, but I wouldn’t call it a bodice ripper. YA romance has its dignity…or maybe that’s John…

2.    Let me repeat again that this isn’t just a light fluffy read. The characters have baggage, they’re flawed. All this just made the story better. This is one of the things I really like about Echols- she writes great romance, but it’s not all about the romance- the characters have personality and depth and well, character.

3.    Echols has written similar books (same genre, same size, same publisher) and I plan on reading them as well. I’ll let you know what I think!

     

     PS A frequently asked question on Echol's website is this: Is John from Going too Far based on a real person, and can I borrow him?

     Her answer? No

     Well darn...