Feb 2, 2015

Review: I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

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.

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.
Buy: I'll Meet You There

2 comments:

  1. Can't wait the release of this book tomorrow!! *-*

    Ps. I have a blog as well, written both in English and Italian. I'd love if you stopped by :) -> http://frannieinthepages.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really enjoyed the grittiness of this one and how the artwork was incorporated into the storyline. A powerful story!

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