Saturday, April 12, 2014

Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Title: Such a Rush
Author: Jennifer Echols
Series: No
Finished or ARC: Finished
Source: Bought at Wal-Mart

Goodreads: (some things have been cut out because of length)
All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once... When Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re 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.

Review (note: I read this over nine months ago. Write reviews in a book people! It's a great idea.)
Jennifer Echols is pretty famous in the YA world. I really want to read her book Dirty Little Secret. It sounds really good. So did Such a Rush.

No, this isn't a negative review. Just a review filled with a bit of disappointment. I say this because of this word: typical.

Typical situation: girl wants to leave her crappy home and parent for some place better and for a better life.
      I wish the situation was...I don't know, not this. I don't know what it should have been, but I feel like this back ground story is a bit boring. 

Typical character: girl puts on a mask of "I don't care", but really want to be loved and have the free she wants.
       I love characters who have a strong backbone and can stand up for themselves. Look at Rose Hathaway and Tris and Lea from Delirium. What I don't like is how much of this attitude of "I don't care" was emphasized in the book. I get that she didn't care what people of her, but it got a little tiring to have it played out over and over, especially when it came to her best friend, Molly.

Typical boy: boy who hides a secret but loves the girl and won't tell her a single thing.
      A boy that keeps secrets from a girl usually results in one thing: guy won't tell girl and she gets upset with him but they end up together anyway. the secret that Grayson was keeping was sweet and thoughtful when it came to who it was about and the reason behind it. But keeping it from Leah was bit stupid. I think if she was told, then she would have done a better job helping Grayson.

Yes, most of these things are common in YA contemporary novels, but sometimes they can get really boring.  Now the planes were cool. I have never read a book that incorporated planes. In a way, the planes represented the freedom Leah craved, which I thought was brilliant. Planes are like birds: flying free.

Besides some of the comments mentioned before, the one thing I truly didn't like about this book was Leah's best friend, Molly. I get that she's a nice love interest for Adam, and a nice contrast to Leah, but other than that, I don't see the purpose of her. She was annoying. She have a fight with Leah and then she disappears to the background until they make up in the very, very, end. 

Don't get me wrong, though. This book good, just with some faults.

Rating

Cover
I love the hair representing the "wind blowing through your hair as you fly" effect, but I wish there was a bit more with planes incorporated. 


P.S. College sucks when it comes to wanting to read and review. Beware!