Biggest Flirts (The Superlatives #1) by Jennifer Echols

Synopsis: "Tia and Will’s lives get flipped upside down when they’re voted Yearbook’s Biggest Flirts in this sassy novel from the author of Endless Summer and The One That I Want.

Tia just wants to have fun. She’s worked hard to earn her reputation as the life of the party, and she’s ready for a carefree senior year of hanging out with friends and hooking up with cute boys. And her first order of business? New guy Will. She can’t get enough of his Midwestern accent and laidback swagger. 

As the sparks start to fly, Will wants to get serious. Tia’s seen how caring too much has left her sisters heartbroken, and she isn’t interested in commitment. But pushing Will away drives him into the arms of another girl. Tia tells herself it’s no big deal…until the yearbook elections are announced. Getting voted Biggest Flirts with Will is, well, awkward. They may just be friends, but their chemistry is beginning to jeopardize Will’s new relationship—and causing Tia to reconsider her true feelings. What started as a lighthearted fling is about to get very complicated…"

Title: Biggest Flirts

Series: The Superlatives #1

Genre: contemporary romance, YA

Pages: 317

Ages: ?? (Explained in review)

My Rating: 2 stars

One Word: Blegh

Fave Quote: ?? (had to find a fave quote when the whole book was pretty disappointing)

Review

Echols definitely accomplished one thing for sure: she got wrapped up in the stereotypical high school dramas, making the novel a hell of a lot more vexing.

I guess I'm getting too old for these books, but I'm only 16, younger than the main characters of this story! And they seemed like the immature ones. I mean, Will Matthews? I've never met a guy as over-dramatic as him. When he was confessing all his problems with Tia, I got confused between his and Tia's dialogue because he was acting like a girl! And why was he dying for a girlfriend anyway? Just stay single for a couple of days instead of moving right onto another girl!

"He pulled the phone from his pocket and glanced casually at the screen. As soon as he saw it, though, his jaw dropped. He tapped the phone with his thumb again.
'Fuck!' he shouted in a sharp crack that bounced against the bleachers. He turned toward the goalpost, reared back, and hurled his phone-quite an athelic feat, considering he was still wearing his snare drum" (55).

Drama queen much?

I admit, I picked up this book because I wanted to break up my reading with a simple, no-thinking, summer book, but this was just a little too simple. Simple as in lower level that is, because there were extra pieces to this story that either should've been gone completely or needed more details in order to make some sense as to why it's in the story. Tia's other two sisters (excluding Violet), for instance, were mentioned way too frequently yet didn't even show up in the novel! I thought Izzy would at least considering she worked down the street from Tia.

I was very confused with Echols's maturity level for this book, as well, considering the beginning contained some more graphic scenes which I was fine with, but mixed with childish conversations and bantering? Was this book made for teenagers or little kids? Echols, you can have mature titillating scenes with mature characters or vice versa, but they can not be intertwined.

Lastly, Tia and her friends. *blegh* Kaye and Harper are the classic stereotypical high school girls. Let me tell you, folks, there is no such thing as a high school like Echols's version here. There are no cliques (at least not separated between cheerleaders and football players and such) and absolutely no talk 24/7 about relationships!!! Yeah there's dating and all but teenagers aren't revolved around it and it's problems! I was ambivalent over Tia considering she annoyed the hell out of me with her unrealistic personality and the "always talking and fearless" way about her (like when she goes up to the stadium and talks in the microphone without hesitation?) but I also loved it because I sort of wished I could be as ballsy as her to be honest.

Overall, a sappy story with cheesy jokes and bland characters. The only reason why it received 2 stars instead of 1 (aside from being a nice rater) is that I honestly didn't mind this story outline and thought it was very unique for a contemporary young adult; just not written well enough to gain my sympathy over the characters or any sort of emotion for that matter.

★★

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 ;) ).
★★★★