Berls
Written on Jan 8, 2020
'Beautiful, real and devastating' Sarah J. MaasA moving story of grief, friendship and unforgettable love that fans of Sara Bernard and Nicola Yoon will love from international YA bestselling author Jennifer Armentrout.
Lena has always felt immortal. But one night can change everything.Lena and Sebastian have been close for as long as anyone can remember. Best friends, even. But secretly Lena has been wanting something more-Sebastian could be more than a friend, if only Lena could figure out how to convince him that they could, and should be together.
But in a single night, after a single party, everything changes and suddenly Lena isn't thinking about her relationship with Sebastian at all.
The only thing she's thinking about is trying to piece together what happened that night, and how she was the sole survivor in an accident that left 4 of her friends dead.
Even as her friends and family try to rally around her, Lena pushes them away as the memory of the accident begins to resurface. How will they ever forgive her for what she did? How will Sebastian forgive her?
And how will she ever forgive herself?
- ISBN10 1335499075
- ISBN13 9781335499073
- Publish Date 12 March 2019 (first published 1 September 2017)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Inkyard Press
- Edition First Time Trade ed.
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 368
- Language English
Reviews
Cocktails and Books
Written on Sep 14, 2017
This one gutted me. When I think back on my high school years that could have very easily have been me making poor choices and then left to suffer the consequences. Definitely a book I'll be encouraging my teenager to read. Powerful stuff!
liz089
Written on Sep 8, 2017
Review.
This was a difficult novel for me. Not only to read, but also to review. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jennifer L. Armentrout. She is one of my favourites for YA fantasy, her adore her Covenant series, had immensely much fun reading her Lux series and I can’t wait to continue the Wicked Saga soon.
But her contemporary novels ? They don’t really do it for me.
I read The Problem with Forever last year, and honesty? I was kind of disappointed. I thought it was boring and predictable. I also missed the emotion that I want from a good YA Contemporary.
So I was not really sure how much I would like this one, but it is still a Jennifer L. Armentrout book, so I had to try anyway.
What I Liked.
The first part of the book I had a lot of feelings. I immediately related to the MC and really felt for her. Even though I did not agree with some of the MC’s ways and some small treats starting to annoy me, the way this novel was written got to me. I was really into it for the first 30/40-ish percent.
I also really enjoyed the female friendships in this novel. Even though her main focus was on the love interest, her friends stayed important throughout the novel and had a part in her well-being. It is necessary not to only focus on the lover, but to keep other friendships in there as well. It makes the book more well-rounded and gives the MC more depth. I miss that in a lot of YA Contemporary, and I found it very interesting how her relationship with her friends suffered/changed with the accident.
Now, before I start on the problems I had with this novel, I have so say that the message behind this novel is very important. There are way too many car accidents caused by drunk driving. Way too many lives taken too early because of one mistake. And no matter what I think of the rest of the story, this is a message cannot be repeated enough.
What I Disliked.
My biggest issue was with the plot. After the big reveal of what really happened that faithful night, I got kind of bored. It felt like she was building up the mystery to what really happened, and when she explained what happened after 25% of the novel, I felt like it was almost finished. Which of course was not the case.. XD But it did make me restless for the remaining of the novel and I skimmed a lot because of that finished feel. It is like I fell completely out of love with it. I could not get back into it, could not get those feelings back, I just felt done with it.
I also found the plot really predictable. Yes, it is a contemporary.. but you can still try to be innovative and bring something new into the mix. That did not happen here. It is the same as so many other novels, we have seen this so many times, read about it a lot already, and even though this topic is still very important today, it has been done too much already. It is just the same as all the others.
I did like Lena (our MC) at the beginning, but the further I got, the less I liked her. One minute she was pretending she didn’t need anyone, and the next she kept whining about what other people thought of her. She was so naïve and self-absorbed (yes I get that what happened to her was a big deal), but I really disliked how she made everything about her, while so many other people got hurt too.
And our love interest… Damn he was dull !! He had no personality and was way too perfect. Give me some flaws, something to dislike about him to make him more human. He was just such a cliché and ideal and faultless.. I did not feel much for him or their romance.
Final Thoughts.
So this second try at a YA Contemporary by Jennifer L. Armentrout did also not work for me. It started out good, but after the big finish about 25% of the book I felt like I was done with it. The novel got boring and cliché and did not have much character. Maybe if you’re still new to all of this you will like it, but for an experienced reader it just not good enough.
To me it feels like she is a much better writer when you throw in some Fantasy elements. I’m not sure if I will read another one of her YA contemporary’s…
2.5 stars
Rowena
Written on Sep 8, 2017
Lena is a senior in high school and like high school kids tend to do, they go to school and they go to parties and they make bad decisions. Lena’s bad choice destroys the senior year that she envisioned for herself. Everything that she used to worry about, don’t matter anymore and Lena struggles to deal with the aftermath of her bad choice.
Lena has been in love with her best friend Sebastian for as long as she can remember and the night everything changed, she was so mad at him. About what? Nothing that matters now. Things are different now and sure, she still loves Sebastian but if he finds out about her bad choice, how can he ever love her back?
Lena’s struggles throughout this book are completely understandable and even though I understood why she felt the way that she did, I was still a bit frustrated with her at times. The push and pull thing she had with Sebastian was a little annoying but I chalked that up to her being young and still allowed to be that frustrating.
I completely adored Sebastian though. Loved the hell out of him and loved the way that he just refused to leave Lena’s side when she wanted him gone. I loved that he knew she shouldn’t be alone and wasn’t overwhelming in his need to be there for his best friend and love his best friend, that there was a balance to him and Lena. He was such a good love interest.
I enjoy Jennifer L. Armentrout’s writing style and after I finished this book, I went out and bought The Problem with Forever. This book was heartbreaking and it was hard to get through but it was a really strong story that I connected with. Lena’s struggles were real. I felt her grief and her guilt. I was wrapped up in this story from beginning to end. This is an important read for young readers and I’m really glad that I picked this up.
Grade: 4 out of 5
Linda
Written on Sep 6, 2017