Monday, September 24, 2012

Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

YA Contemporary
Date Published - 7/10/12

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.

My Rating:



My Review:
I have yet to find an Echols book that I LOVE as much as Going Too Far, but she continues to write some of the best books about teens with serious issues in life. 

Leah is seriously an amazing character! She knows what she wants to do with her life and she absolutely has striven to accomplish her goals. Fortunate to have been taken under the wing of Mr. Hall, she has made a life and hopefully career for herself. With the tragic death of her mentor, she is left with an uncertain future. 

When Leah finally has a real conversation with Grayson Hall for the first time, it's nothing like she expected. The one guy she had lusted over from afar and who always seemed to have a major problem with her is asking her for a favor, or rather blackmailing her into doing what he wants.

Their relationship is a rocky one, secrets and lies along with a rivalry with another company lead to hazardously consequences. Loved the chemistry between Grayson and Leah from the beginning, even though they both seemed to deny it for their own reasons. 

The revelations and uncovered secrets within the Hall family added an additional  layer to the already deep subject matter in this story. Another great read from Jennifer Echols!



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