Reviewed by nitzan_schwarz on
Like, there is no real relationship angst between these two because that's not the type of story this is, and probably not the type of story Bowen likes to tell judging by this and [b:The Year We Fell Down|27846624|The Year We Fell Down (The Ivy Years, #1)|Sarina Bowen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447776522s/27846624.jpg|40239717]. Instead, she likes to tell stories of people coming together and helping each other stay afloat and find ground. Center and focus each other. Stuff like that.
I like that. I like that a lot.
Scarlet is dealing with a family scandal that, more than anything, makes her feel extremely guilty. Guilty for not having seen any signs, and guilty for the off chance all those accusations are lies. She doesn't know where she stands or belongs anymore, but she wants to carve a new life away from all the horribleness.
Bridger is living on a knife's edge, with his whole at stake. Because whereas Scarlet wants to put her family far behind her, he just wants to keep his together. Or, at the very least, him and his sister. Here is this earnest man who is doing it *all*. Keeping his grades, his jobs and his sister. But it could all easily crumble.
Now, these two people meet and unite, and that's that for them. There is no other person they'd rather be with, and it shows through their quiet ease around each other, and the way they lean into each other. Quite beautiful.
The only two things I can mention on the negatives are not really negatives, just observations;
1. It's probably best for me not to read Bowen's book one after the other, because sometimes her characters voice sound *very* similar. Like, describing the school as Hogwarts houses or using Giddyup. Two very specific things that appeared in both books, by completely different characters. That's a bit weird for me. And something I definitely struggle with in my own writing lol
2. The discovery of Scarlet's true father was a bit weird for me. I had no particular issue with it, but I did wonder why it was necessary to completely disassociate her from her pedophile dad. Like, good people can be born to horrible human beings. That's just a fact, and that's okay. They very rarely get the good fortune of discovering that those scumbag people are actually not blood-related to them in any shape or form, and that made me kind of sad that Bowen felt it necessary to "clean" Scarlet by giving her this out. Just some thoughts, tho
Reading updates
- Started reading
- Finished reading
- 16 September, 2016: Reviewed