L. Jayne

wow....just wow...

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I'm really glad I listened to her and read it, I really really liked it!!

Jack & Avena's relationship was like a roller-coaster ride, so many ups and downs you feel dizzy at the end of it, but that's exactly why I loved them together so much...they felt real to me! That's also why I think the not so happy ending of the book, while in other circumstances would have been infuriating, was quite appropriate in this case.v… (lisätietoja)

This is a story of two very damaged young adults who are drawn to each other, in a deeply, weirdly intense way. They both have major issues that they have to tackle everyday on top of having to fight this connection between them. And they DO fight it. Physically, emotionally, mentally. Perfect portrayal of high school situations. Yes, high school is exactly like this. I was immersed in their intense world of angst, hatred, love and dependency. Ms Jayne does it so well: the way they react to each other, the way they move, touch, speak, their expressions, their words, their thoughts. It's like I'm right there with them at their lockers, at their cafeteria table, in the quad, on the beach, in their homes, in their cars, on the dance floor, in the changing rooms. Where IS this author? I want inside her head. How is it possible to bring across so MUCH in such an unpolished work?

There are so many emotions flying around in this little story. The hero and heroine don't really "grow". Oh, they get older, the months and then 4 years go by, but basically they stay the same buggered up co dependent people they started out to be. And I loved it. Basically they go through high school trying to deal with their various issues, trying to deal with each other.

Adrian:
Excerpt: “He’s heartbreak waiting to happen”
Excerpt: “He’s just a broken player. Literally and figuratively.”

Avena:
Excerpt: “She was everything complicated; all coy eyes, snarky attitude, and hard edges.”

Adrian and Avena:
Excerpt: “You’re unable to love. I can’t love you either,” I choke out. “We’re poison for each other.”
“No,” Adrian says into my hair as he pulls me to him until my head is in the crook of his collarbone and I’m inhaling in his scent. “We’re infinity together. Unstoppable.”

Adrian and Avena's story deserves to be told. Properly. Ms Jayne has created two beautifully real protagonists, in their own stunningly violent love hate reality. If this story is cleaned up, it's potential is sky reaching. The author deserves an editor who believes in her. Who will help her take this book to its rightful place at the top of the reading charts.

Ms Jayne needs to have this book edited and published by a reputable publishing house because it has HUGE potential. I'm embarrassed to say that I loved this book because the editing is horrendous and the inconsistencies in the plot are ridiculous. But that's the only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars. I loved everything else about it. I love how this author manages to bring across the intense emotion and very real issues that she tackles. If this book, with all its glaringly obvious errors can pack a punch like it has, I can only imagine the effect it will have once its been "neatened".

I wasn't happy with the abrupt ending. I wanted more for them. I wanted an epilogue to SEE or feel their HEA but I'm assuming its the author's intention to leave things where they are, another reason I think she is just brilliant. A sequel is not necessary, but if there was one, I would be on it like white on rice.… (lisätietoja)

Reread on 09.01.'13.
I actually kept a written timeline and other little things commentary during the re-read. Even written down, it was hard to follow, here are some of my final notes.

- Timeline waaaaaaaaay too messed up for me, especially after I've written it down. Just an example...she says they're in second semester, then BAM, it's not even Christmas yet.

- Still absolutely no idea what happened with Brent. She implied that after he got her drunk he raped her (couldn't fight his weight on her, or something like that), but then she says nothing happened. And that's the end of that story.

- Mother's death all over the place. She dies in May, even though I thought she dies in September/late August, but hey, her funeral is in September, but then Avena mentions it's her mother's death anniversary(?) in October...and then that it will be her first Christmas without her.

- The Graham thing is horrible. He cyber-bullies her by sending her pictures around, he beats her up in front of everyone so much she ends up in a hospital, and then he tries to rape her. And he gets away with this whole thing? WHAT IS THAT PLACE?

- At one point Adrian speeds away from a police car that's chasing him...and that's the end of that. He just loses them...Yeah, like that would ever happen. If anything, they'd find him by his license plates.

- Adrian's birth parents, adoption and adoptive parents...he keeps changing the story about it. He says he didn't know his real mother or father, except he mentions right at the beginning that he remembers his mother ranting about his father, but they actually sent him away when he was three, only he remembers some Spiderman lunchbox she gave him in 3rd grade, then he was in a lot of foster homes, but he only found out he was adopted when he was ten or eleven...See my point? Nothing makes sense.

- Where did "obscene pictures" of her that Adrian puts all over the school come from? As far as we're told Graham is the only one who had them, Adrian knew nothing about them...and it's only later in the story that he sends them.

- The setting of the book: I get it that the small town is probably made up. BUT - first that beach is at the lake, then it's saltwater, there's also mention of Oklahoma City where Adrian goes twice which made me assume it's at least a nearby state, but then she mentions Michigan air, except the great lakes are all freshwater, and then Adrian watching the OCEAN from the pier at that beach...Oh, the Caulfield train station is actually in Victoria, Australia.

And these are just the major things I actually caught, there were a lot more of these little inconsistencies. And I think a good editor...or even a mediocre one, would have caught all of this.

I initially loved this. My review still stands because I love the story, however I am going to take my rating down simply because the author is yet to fix all the inconsistencies and plot holes and the book is still up despite desperately needing editing.

At this point I feel it's just plain disrespectful towards the readers to keep this up with all of these things (that have been pointed out to the author in reviews (not mine, OTHER reviews) - timeline that is completely off, a couple of major plot holes, her mother's death, the Brent story that makes no sense, Adrian's back story, setting of the book) and charge $5.99 for it.

If the author gets this book properly edited, I'll gladly re-read it and bring back my five-star rating because I feel the story is worthy of that, but until then...

Original review:
Holy mother of angsty romance. The raw emotion that took me after I finished this is too much. It is an absolutely beautiful, wonderful and definitely not your typical YA. I'm actually giddy here, wondering what else this author will come up with.

Reading it I realized it's one of those books, the ones that stay with you long after you've read the last sentence.

The game Adrian and Avena play from the very beginning exhausted me, but I was rooting for them so much. She beats him up (repeatedly), he plays stupid pranks on her, they find comfort in each other and then push each other away, they dance around each other in this game like they're daring the other to make the first definitive move, and then when they come together I felt it was like walking on eggshells.

Adrian has quite a reputation, and honestly, I found myself downright hating him quite a few times throughout the book. And she has a reputation, too, one that he so easily believes and resents her for in the beginning and I found that to be so hypocritical of him. But I also sympathized with him because he's just rebelling against everything in his life, and it's pretty shitty. And Avena is hurting so much at the beginning I was hurting alongside with her. He fills that void in her, becomes this obsessive distraction. It's heartbreaking, actually. He fights her! He fights his feelings for her, he fights what they could have if he would just let go. And she fights him right back.

They really go through everything he says in the prologue - Strangers to friends, friends to enemies, enemies to lovers, lovers to haters, haters to friends... Their relationship is so complex. I don't know. You can see how good it is for both of them, but the fact that they are never certain where they stand just leaves you with this unsettling feeling in your stomach. You feel like it could all fall apart at any moment and you dread the moment it does.
In the end I broke down sobbing.

What else did I like about it? Hayden was awesome and a good friend to Avena. For once, we get a male best friend that isn't secretly in love with the heroine. It's quite refreshing because it was such an easy trap for the author to fall into, but Lilah Jayne didn't!

The ending? It was very abrupt and it left me wanting more. I really needed to know these two will be okay.

It could have used more editing, though. Sometimes the author will start a sentence in past tense and finish in present tense. And there were a couple of inconsistencies, like the Brent story (I'm still not sure what really happened), the timeline also seems a bit off - she says her mother died in May but her funeral is in September...things like those. Nevertheless, it's nowhere near as bad as some things I've read.

I don't even know what else to say about this, I just really really liked it. I need people to read it.

edit: 12.12.12. Available internationally! Yay!… (lisätietoja)