The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: January 7, 2014
Publisher: NAL Trade
384 Pages
Aleena Moore is content with her life. She has goals and dreams and an easy smile. She also has a secret she holds locked inside.
Jared Holt believes he doesn’t deserve to love or be loved. He destroys everything he touches. Haunted by the mistake that shattered his life, he’s fled from the memory of that pain.
Jared doesn’t know why he’s compelled to return, but finds himself drawn back to the place where it all began. The exact place where it ended. When he runs into his childhood best friend, Aleena’s older brother Christopher, he agrees to share Christopher and Aleena’s apartment while he looks for a place of his own.
Aleena is no longer the little girl Jared remembers from his past and evokes feelings in him he never wanted to feel again. Terrified of destroying her, he fights to keep her away. But her touch is something he can’t resist—the touch that sealed his fate.
Their pasts are intertwined and their futures uncertain. The only truths they know are the secrets they whisper in the night.
I received a copy
of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: January 7, 2014Publisher: NAL Trade
384 Pages
Aleena Moore is content with her life. She has goals and dreams and an easy smile. She also has a secret she holds locked inside.
Jared Holt believes he doesn’t deserve to love or be loved. He destroys everything he touches. Haunted by the mistake that shattered his life, he’s fled from the memory of that pain.
Jared doesn’t know why he’s compelled to return, but finds himself drawn back to the place where it all began. The exact place where it ended. When he runs into his childhood best friend, Aleena’s older brother Christopher, he agrees to share Christopher and Aleena’s apartment while he looks for a place of his own.
Aleena is no longer the little girl Jared remembers from his past and evokes feelings in him he never wanted to feel again. Terrified of destroying her, he fights to keep her away. But her touch is something he can’t resist—the touch that sealed his fate.
Their pasts are intertwined and their futures uncertain. The only truths they know are the secrets they whisper in the night.
“I see beauty and
pain. Joy and sorrow. I see the good and I see the bad…and I love it all.”
Jared, Christopher, and Aly all grew up together. Jared and
Christopher were best friends, Aly was Christopher’s little sister and secretly
in love with Jared, their parents were best friends, everything was good. Then
an accident takes the life of Jared’s mother and sends him on a downward spiral
throwing everything into chaos. Jared disappears leaving Christopher and Aly to
pick up the pieces of their torn apart families.
Time passes, Chris and Aly move into together and are going
to college, successfully getting on with their lives. All that changes when
Chris finds Jared in a bar and brings him back to his apartment. Jared’s
arrival brings back all of Aly’s old feelings for him and she realizes that she
never got over the him – the boy who protected her when she was a child, the
boy who always made sure she was never left behind, the boy who made her feel
safe.
I am a sucker for broken boys and Jared is definitely
broken. He’s haunted by events in his past, events that he feels responsible
for. And for once, I feel like his pain has a substantial base. Most tortured
males in YA/NA are torn up over something that wasn’t their fault, they just
choose to internalize it. What happens here is actually Jared’s fault, and even
though it was something that could have happened to anyone, it happened to him.
The result of this turns his life upside down and it just gets so out of
control that by the time he comes back into Aly’s life, he sees no way out.
The story was told from both POV’s of Aly and Jared so that
we could see what each of them were thinking. Weaved into this were glimpses of
their past. I loved the little peeks into when they were children. I felt it
made the bond between Aly and Jared so much more powerful and when he finally
decides to let someone in, it makes sense that it’s her. Their bond is written
beautifully and I reveled in their time together. However, just when it seems
to be going good, everything has to come crashing down.
Now, I knew this would happen. There always has to be the
big blow-up and crying and heart-wrenching pain. I expected it and it did not disappoint.
Jackson’s writing style had me feeling everyone’s heartbreak, not just Aly and
Jared’s. When you lose someone important, it doesn’t just affect the
intermediate family, it affects everyone around them. Jackson showed loss from
all sides and pain from all sides, and then she showed growth and how people move
on but never forget.
This was a 4 star book for me up until the end. The author
took the story to a place that I honestly didn’t expect her to take it, and I
honestly felt like it wasn’t needed and took me out of the scene for a minute.
After reading the plot for the next book, I’m hoping it wasn’t just added for dramatic
purposes.
A great start to what seems to be a series I will continue.
No comments :
Post a Comment