Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Synopsis: A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.
When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.

Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. 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. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and 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 . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. 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.

Title: Such a Rush
Series: None
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 325
Ages: 14-18 (involves some make out sessions)
Date I Finished: January 22nd, 2014
My Rating: 4 stars
My Word(s): LoveTheMainCharacter, BlewMeAway (no pun intended), DifferentYetAmazing
My Fave Quote(s):
"'He's not your type.'
'Oh, really?' I laughed, 'Who's my type, Patrick?'
'His brother,' Patrick said.
'Grayson?'...
'We were pretty good friends. You and me, we like playing with fire for some reason'" (193).

"Most people hear an airplane in the sky and think 'there's and airplane,' and go back to what they were doing. A few folks look around for the airplane, try to figure out what plane it is, and watch it from the time they spot it to the time it disappears on the horizon, maybe after that. Those kids are the ones who will be pilots." He pointed at me. "I knew that about you. I've just been waiting for you to show up."

“When I’m with you," he began again, "it’s like… I still don’t feel normal. But I can see normal at twelve o’clock on the horizon." He pointed past me, through the windshield of an imaginary airplane. "At least I know normal is still out there. I’ve spent the last three months not sure of that at all."

Review

Wholy god....I wrote an amazing review for this book and GoodReads just deleted it D: WHHY??

So basically here it went:
I was wary of reading this book at first because I'm not a fan of contemporary novels. They usually bore me to death through the first 100 pages.

But not this book.

The plot of Such a Rush was absolutely brilliant. It wasn't any of those "boy next door" books like the regular contemporary-romance books. Instead, it involved a trailer park, an airport next door, and two guy pilots trying to run their dead father's business.

The characters were definitely amazing as well. Let's just say, I envy Leah Jones. Leah, the main character, lives in a trailer home, and has a horrible mother and father who she doesn't know and still has the I-don't-give-any-shits kind of attitude. She decides to try to fix the life that her mother put her into by getting a job at the airport near her. Ever since she laid eyes on one of her boss's sons, Grayson, she never stopped crushing on him.

Now, the two sons...Grayson and Alec. After their father's death, Grayson decides to keep the banner-towing business running and Alec helps. Alec is the nice, goody two shoes boy, and Grayson is the I-also-don't-give-any-shits adrenaline junkie. The only thing that confused and frustrated me was that Grayson had two personalities throughout the book. At first he was all "Do as I say" attitude, and then he became a mix of that attitude and the "lovey-dovey perfect boy" personality. Imagine those two personalities together...if I hadn't read the book, I would imagine a bipolar dysfunctional crazy guy...actually maybe I still do... Despite that and the "Do as I say" part of him, I would've fallen for him as well.

The plot. That was probably the reason that this book got four stars. I mean, the main character lives in a trailer park for crying out loud! How interesting does that sound?! After I read the summary, I was very curious to what was going to happen in the book, and my expectations were pretty blown away. When I say pretty blown away, I'm excluding the two personality Grayson because although he was okay at the end, I'm surprised Leah still liked him after all the mean stuff he did and all the fights that they had before they were together. Grayson, Leah's crush, blackmails her by dangling the secret that could ruin her pilot career so she could keep working for him. The whole blackmailing mess results in one fake relationship with Grayson's brother and another relationship at the same time that Leah thinks could never work out (if that makes sense). Basically, once Leah does what Grayson says (not just work for him), a lot of shit goes down that knocked me off my socks (yes...I just said knock me off my socks).

Overall, this review is so messy, and I promise you the one that got deleted was so much better D:. But seriously, this book totally beat my expectations, the characters and plot are deliciously different, yet amazing (besides two faced Grayson although he was still sexy enough for me to like ;) ).
★★★★

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Synopsis: Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.


Title: Hate List
Series: None
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 405
Ages: 13-17 (but anyone can really read this)
Date I Finished: August 3rd, 2012
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
My Word/Phrase: INSPIRATIONAL
Book Format: Hardcover (from the lib)

First off, sorry if this review has grammar problems and/or doesn't make any sense. It's late and I'm tired.

Wow. This book.

I have to say I caught myself almost crying near the end. This journey through Valerie's hard time in highschool, after the shooting, and how Val learned many lessons as the time passed helped me learn a valuable lesson as well. In her perspective, I could easily tell she had no idea that Nick would start killing the people they put on the "Hate List", but if I were a character in the book and I didn't know Valeria at all, I would assume she were part of the reason for it. The little flashbacks of Val and Nick were definitely my favortie parts in the book. It showed both sides of Nick; the fun and happy Nick that understood what Valerie was going through, and the one who hung out with Jeremy and was serious when he talked about death. This book made me cry throughout and smile at the end. (And I love the kind of books that do that!)

COVER I like the paperback cover better! Partially because: To be honest, I really couldn't figure out what the cover showed before I read the book. It was like an illusion! I couldn't find where the face was. And if you saw the actual cover, you would know what I'm talking about because the cover showing on goodreads is much more clearer to see. Once my sister showed me where the face parts were and I saw it, I still didn't understand why'd the book would be different shades of gray because, personally, that seems boring. After I read the book, I realized that the different shades of gray TOTALLY related to the story! When that one scene where Valerie was painting, Bea told her to start with the shading (the grays). So I assume that's why the cover is like that.

PLOT Okay, now the actual story. At first I thought this book was slightly boring, and it didn't occur until the last 40 pages or so that it didn't seem as boring. (Hence the added .5 star to the rating) I realized it was actually vary facsinating reading about Valerie learning and seeing life more clearly. She didn't think about herself, which she did before the shooting (about how bad her life is with her parnets/bullies), but rather thinking about stepping into someone else's shoes and feeling their perspective of the shooting and even life before it.

CHARACTERS First off, as the story progressed, and Valerie Leftman learned more life skills, I personally started to love her for acting the way she did. In the beginning she thought of herself as the only one who really needed help because people thought she was some reason of the shooting. She didn't realize that other families were having a hard time about the shooting and of the loss of their loved ones. Next when she became friends with Jessica and learned how to deal with being blamed for, she started to blame herself and thinking maybe she was a hero for helping Jessica. Finally as she interviewed each family for the memorial that Jessica and her were planning, she learned that everybody was a hero that day, one way or another and she finally started to become happy. On the otherhand, during Valerie's flashbacks, I thought Nick Levil fit Valerie's old way of describing Nick; cute, funny, sweet, etc. She knew he liked to talk about death but she never thought of it as a reality the way Nick did. After the shooting, I knew Nick just lost it and probably was angry about the bullies and popular girls who were always "on top". Now on to Jessica Campbell, the one who bullies Valerie in the beginning, but once Valerie saved her life, started to think things differently about life. She became friends with Valerie and became a nicer person in general. She also helped Valerie get back on her two feet. (NOT literally because Valerie did get shot in the thigh)

So, I liked this book a lot and it's plot was really heart wrenching because of how sad these kids' lives were and as it progressed, became a true inspirational story. :)

★★★1/2 (Don't know how to do half a star :P)