ammaarah
Written on Nov 30, 2016
"This is the beginning of something that no matter where we go will never have an end." (Dillon Murphy)
Melyssa Winchester can do the impossible. She can turn an irredeemable character into a hero. Who would have thought that I would start rooting for Dillon, a cold and cruel bully? I didn't think I would, but I'm writing this review to tell you that I did.
After the events that took place in Count On Me, Dillon is now being punished by attending the special education class in order to learn more and interact with the students whose lives he has made miserable. It's in this class that he meets Cadence Taylor and it changes everything for him.
In the beginning, Dillon is terrible. He bullies other people because he doesn't want to be seen as weak, something that was taught to him by his father from an extremely young age. When he gets into the special education class he notices Cadence Taylor, his next target. In the beginning he wants to ruin her by making her fall in love with him and then hurting her afterwards, but he's the one that gets ruined and starts falling for Cadence. This changes his views on people with disabilities. I found Dillon's emotional turmoil, development as well and changing of views and opinions extremely believable.
Cadence doesn't want to spend the two weeks away from her school in her mother's class, but Mrs Taylor doesn't give her a choice. In order to pass the time, she starts interacting with Dillon although she knows that he's absolute trouble. Cadence is an amazing character who doesn't let her disability define her. She doesn't let Dillon get away with his bullshit and she's always challenging him. She has a strong, no-nonsense personality and doesn't let anybody take advantage of her.
"We're not weak or what's wrong with the world. If anything from the people that I've met and spent time with, we might just be what's right about it." (Cadence Taylor)
I also enjoy the roles that Kayden and Mrs Taylor play in Hear Me Now. Kayden is the best friend, 'big brother' character to Dillon and his interactions with Dillon are hilarious. Mrs Taylor is an extremely supportive parent to Cadence and an amazing teacher to her students and she balances both parts of her life extremely well.
Aside from the typos and grammatical errors in Hear Me Now, I throughly enjoyed Dillon's believable conversion from douchebag to sweetheart, strong characters who don't let the fact that they have gone through literal hell define them and an amazing romance.
"Love isn't about trying, failing and giving up because it didn't work out the way you wanted it to. It's continuing to try despite it." (Mrs Taylor)