Title: I’ll
Meet You There
Author: Heather
Demetrios
Publisher: Henry
Holt & Co.
Publication Date:
2.3.2015
Pages: 400
Genre: Young
Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Military, Issues
Series: N/A
Source: ARC
from publisher
Rating: 5
Stars
Summary (from Goodreads):
If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her
future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the
graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing
between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of
summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job
and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she
loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.
Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.
Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.
Review:
Several
months back I had the pleasure of helping organize the YA Author/Blogger Party
at BEA 2014. One of the things I did was pair authors with a blogger to chat
with. I buddied up my friend Danny at Bewitched Bookworms with an author she
said she loved, Heather Demetrios. Danny was beyond excited, and I never quite
got it until now.
Because
Heather Demetrios is my hero, too.
When
I sent out a tweet trying to find a great book with solid characters and some
yummy romance, I never expected Jamie from The Broke and The Bookish (along
with a bunch of others) to respond with I’LL MEET YOU THERE, but I was bored
and feeling whatever, so I started it.
I
just finished it minutes ago, but I can already tell this is a book that will
linger in my heart for years to come. Dynamic characters, powerful writing, and
heated romance fuels this beautiful book in every single one of its 400 pages.
I
loved how absolutely real this story read. From Josh’s issues returning home
with one less limb than he left with, to Skylar’s struggle to maintain the
balance between being true to herself and saving her mom from herself, to the
colorful array of secondary characters (seriously, can Blake and/or Dylan get a
spinoff here?). Every situation was something real people are facing every day.
And Demetrios didn’t take the easy way out by making quick excuses and
apologies—if a character here made a mistake (I’m looking at you, Josh), they
had to earn forgiveness.
I’ve
had Heather Demetrios’s other books sitting on my shelf for a while and they’ve
sat untouched; pretty decorations on my shelf. I can’t wait to pull them off
and find more of her characters to love.
Can't wait the release of this book tomorrow!! *-*
ReplyDeletePs. I have a blog as well, written both in English and Italian. I'd love if you stopped by :) -> http://frannieinthepages.blogspot.com/
I really enjoyed the grittiness of this one and how the artwork was incorporated into the storyline. A powerful story!
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