BotW {03}

I'm in a reading rut! I have all these great books to read; I have 30 pages on my Kindle of books TBR! Nothing feels like the right book to read at this time. I don't know why.

My pick for my 3rd week's BotW is a tough one because I didn't really come across a 5-star book. I've got 3 great ones, but all were 4-stars.

This week, it is:

 Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Amazon. Book Depository.

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.    

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.

Yes, another contemporary read from me. I can't help it! They're just so.. contemporary and that's what I love about them. It's so realistic and easy to imagine yourself as the protagonist.

{ Characters } I almost dislike them all. Even the beautiful Grayson. Leah, the protagonist, is such a weak character. She's strong by surviving what she had to with no father and a very unreliable mother, but you don't go through daddy/mommy issues without walking away with some emotional baggage of your own. That's what Leah is - emotionally weak with lots of baggage. She has this fortress built around her where she doesn't connect with her friends because she feels that will make her vulnerable and she's too emotionally weak to handle all that. She's right, but it's so frustrating when you read how others roughshod over her and she doesn't ever stand up for herself. Ever. It makes me scream with frustration.  Just her character and how she avoids everything that could be remotely sentimental or friendly .... bah.

Her best friend - She needs to dump. Alec ... I mean I sort of like him, but everyone was playing their own game including him and I didn't like that. Grayson just made me so mad with what he was pushing her to do one minute and then fighting (sometimes NOT fighting) his connection with Leah the next.

{ Plot } It was a steady pace at least. The plot was good from beginning to end. I never felt that there was a slow pace to it. It got really interesting once Mr. Hall dies of course. Once he died, the son(s) take over the business. You don't get a sense of how they do it, why they do it, etc. but it's from Leah's POV so, since she's emotionally distant to anything with a heartbeat, of course, you wouldn't know the details. The "secret" that Grayson holds over her head, I felt it was not well done at all. Considering her position and her living situation, it wasn't well done at all. I felt like if she could easily brush off anything else (like the whole school thinking she's easy!) why is this such a big deal? That didn't make sense.

{ Overall } So if I have so many negatives about it such as not liking a major part of the plot or most, if not all, the characters, why did I choose it as my BotW? It's still a great book about a girl who's trying everything in her power to be in control of her life. She really does know what's important in life. I don't agree with her methods. I don't agree with her not being able to emotionally connect or stand up for herself in certain situations, but she grew up labeled as trailer trash. She took that label and said, "Yes, that's my place now, and I'll never forget where I used to come from. But that's not who I am." How awesome is that? Through all the frustrations, I really enjoyed the book. When Mr. Hall died, I felt bad because ... you felt how important to her success he really was. How important he was because he gave her a chance when no one else did. You realize how vulnerable a position she is in - a minor with no one to help her get out of the path she could easily fall into. After I finished the book, I just sighed and thought, "that's a good book." No greatness, no putting it on the favorites shelf, but still an enjoyable read that I would recommend to everyone who's a big fan of Jennifer Echols and/or contemporary romance. I gave it 4/5 stars.

Here are the other books I've read & rated during the week: July 08 - July 14 2012.
Deadly Memories by P.M. Richter - 3/5
Team Human by Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan - 3/5
The Forsaken by Lisa M. Staase - 4/5
Lonely Alpha by Ranae Rose - 2/5
Origins by Jessa L. Gilbert - 4/5 * Review here.

Until next week :0)