This is exactly how I like my YA books. If the first one or two YA books I picked up years ago had been like this and The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted I'd have been reading the genre long before now.
I was only a few pages in when I came to GR and added Breathless. I didn't add it because it's a "companion novel" but because of Warman's writing in this book.
I didn't want to turn that last page. It's a lovely feeling to want a book to go on. I found myself wishing the book was three times as long as it is. That feeling hasn't been surfacing often in the past few months so I cherished it while reading this.
On and off while reading I couldn't believe how, all at the same time, it was so unrelatable yet so relatable. The actual experiences, some of them, that Emily and her friends go through aren't the average teenagers experiences. Not in the manner they were in this book anyway. Yet the feelings couldn't have been more similiar. I doubt there is a woman anywhere who could read this and not remember the feelings they had when they were a teenager and everything started to change. When they wanted things back they way they used to be, the way they always were, but realized that wasn't going to happen.
Warman did a great, great job here and I'm anxiously looking forward to her next book. She's one of the very few authors who I'll go, right away when it comes out, and buy a book from. Usually I'll wait to get it from a friend, swapping site, used book store, etc. but Warman is one I won't wait on.
I was only a few pages in when I came to GR and added Breathless. I didn't add it because it's a "companion novel" but because of Warman's writing in this book.
I didn't want to turn that last page. It's a lovely feeling to want a book to go on. I found myself wishing the book was three times as long as it is. That feeling hasn't been surfacing often in the past few months so I cherished it while reading this.
On and off while reading I couldn't believe how, all at the same time, it was so unrelatable yet so relatable. The actual experiences, some of them, that Emily and her friends go through aren't the average teenagers experiences. Not in the manner they were in this book anyway. Yet the feelings couldn't have been more similiar. I doubt there is a woman anywhere who could read this and not remember the feelings they had when they were a teenager and everything started to change. When they wanted things back they way they used to be, the way they always were, but realized that wasn't going to happen.
Warman did a great, great job here and I'm anxiously looking forward to her next book. She's one of the very few authors who I'll go, right away when it comes out, and buy a book from. Usually I'll wait to get it from a friend, swapping site, used book store, etc. but Warman is one I won't wait on.
Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com
WHERE THE TRUTH LIES - now that is the ultimate question that Emily Meckler will have to face by the end of the novel.
From everyone else's perspective, Emily has the perfect life. She attends Stonybrook Academy, a prep school where her father is the headmaster. Unlike the other kids at the school, Emily has her parents right there when she needs them. Mandatory Sunday night dinners with her parents, but otherwise, the rest of the time she can be in her dorm with her friends. Emily shares the quad with her three best friends. They share two connected bedrooms.
Life goes on as always until she meets the new boy, Del Sugar. It's unheard of for a new student to start mid term, but Del does. She learns from her father that he allowed Del in as a favor to an old friend. Almost immediately, Del starts to seek Emily out. The two become inseparable - and that's when life really becomes interesting for Emily.
Emily's dad forbids her to see him anymore, alerting her that Del has issues of his own. But that is a sure-fire way to ensure that Emily sneaks around anyway. Soon, Emily finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, and Del gone.
From this point in the novel, secrets and mysteries start to be revealed to the reader. The novel is divided into three distinct parts. It's not until the third part that the intensity really kicks in. Sadly, Emily's reactions and subsequent decisions surrounding her pregnancy almost play out as a side note to the story. I don't want to spoil anything, so I apologize for being vague. It isn't until Emily returns after a summer break that she starts to seriously delve into the truths that she's trying to uncover.
Everything Emily has built her life around may be a lie. Only she can determine if it's something she can overcome, or has Del planted seeds of doubt that will destroy everything she knows and loves?
This is the second novel I've read by Ms. Warman now, and it surely won't be the last. Her writing style is fluid and captivating from the very first page.
WHERE THE TRUTH LIES - now that is the ultimate question that Emily Meckler will have to face by the end of the novel.
From everyone else's perspective, Emily has the perfect life. She attends Stonybrook Academy, a prep school where her father is the headmaster. Unlike the other kids at the school, Emily has her parents right there when she needs them. Mandatory Sunday night dinners with her parents, but otherwise, the rest of the time she can be in her dorm with her friends. Emily shares the quad with her three best friends. They share two connected bedrooms.
Life goes on as always until she meets the new boy, Del Sugar. It's unheard of for a new student to start mid term, but Del does. She learns from her father that he allowed Del in as a favor to an old friend. Almost immediately, Del starts to seek Emily out. The two become inseparable - and that's when life really becomes interesting for Emily.
Emily's dad forbids her to see him anymore, alerting her that Del has issues of his own. But that is a sure-fire way to ensure that Emily sneaks around anyway. Soon, Emily finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, and Del gone.
From this point in the novel, secrets and mysteries start to be revealed to the reader. The novel is divided into three distinct parts. It's not until the third part that the intensity really kicks in. Sadly, Emily's reactions and subsequent decisions surrounding her pregnancy almost play out as a side note to the story. I don't want to spoil anything, so I apologize for being vague. It isn't until Emily returns after a summer break that she starts to seriously delve into the truths that she's trying to uncover.
Everything Emily has built her life around may be a lie. Only she can determine if it's something she can overcome, or has Del planted seeds of doubt that will destroy everything she knows and loves?
This is the second novel I've read by Ms. Warman now, and it surely won't be the last. Her writing style is fluid and captivating from the very first page.
