By: Amy Harmon
Published: March 29, 2016 by CreateSpace
322 pages
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: Freebie, Personal Kindle Library
(Goodreads / Amazon)
Summary:
Blue Echohawk doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know her real name or when she was born. Abandoned at two and raised by a drifter, she didn't attend school until she was ten years old. At nineteen, when most kids her age are attending college or moving on with life, she is just a senior in high school. With no mother, no father, no faith, and no future, Blue Echohawk is a difficult student, to say the least. Tough, hard and overtly sexy, she is the complete opposite of the young British teacher who decides he is up for the challenge, and takes the troublemaker under his wing.MY REVIEW:
This is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody. It is the story of an unlikely friendship, where hope fosters healing and redemption becomes love. But falling in love can be hard when you don't know who you are. Falling in love with someone who knows exactly who they are and exactly why they can't love you back might be impossible.
I've enjoyed several of Amy Harmon's books so when I came across this one as a FREEBIE?!, it was a no-brainer! I loved it! From the Native American story background, to the British teacher who takes a healthy and innocent interest in Blue, to the struggles and growth of Blue's character, to the friendship, romance, emotion and sadness. I loved it all!
The story begins with Blue Echohawk, a 19 year old senior in high school, older than the usual age of seniors, who has created quite the unhealthy reputation for herself. She is tough, rough around the edges, no non-sense, but yet vulnerable and guarded and lonely. So she tries to fill the emptiness with the wrong kind of attention. It's not love really, but it's some kind of connection she is desperately searching for. Her young, history teacher begins to slowly chip away at her bricked up heart by using the events in history to teach these young adults how to write their own history. And wow the idea that history can be taught in such a way as is written here! I was enamoured by it!
I loved the spiritual aspects in this book. While Amy Harmon's books are not necessarily spiritual in nature, meaning they aren't Christian Fiction by any means, she usually weaves Biblical topics into her stories (at least the ones I've read so far). In this one, Blue finds herself praying to God at the lowest of low in her life seeking redemption. It's there in this moment when she empties herself of herself and asks to be made new, for God to "take away the ugliness" that she begins to feel the release from the mistakes and bad decisions she's made. An honest heart truly seeking repentance and finding salvation along the way. As a Christian myself, it was quite the beautiful picture.
Pregnant women and nursing mothers beware! This is your fair warning that there's some gut wrenching scenes that are emotional enough on their own but if your hormones are heightened right now, you'll likely need a lot more tissues close by. As it was, I just seriously teared up several times.
This was a very enjoyable story! My only "wish" was for a little more to the ending, a glimpse further into the future perhaps. As a standalone we won't really get that unless there's another story so I guess here's to hoping for more!
Top 5 Favorite Quotes:
Ya'll - I had SOOO many favorite quotes but sadly, I ran a sync on my Kindle app and when it finished all of my highlights, bookmarks and notes for ONLY this book were gone. The app acted like I hadn't even read the book. I was so disgusted and disappointed. After a battle with Amazon's support chat, who was of no help, they ended up only suggesting it was an "isolated technical issue" and gave me a $5 credit. What even?! But let me just say that this story was full of wonderful lines and thoughts that I had wanted to share and I was truly sad when it was all deleted.
Language: 2 (medium)
Mature Content: 1.5 (light-medium)
Final Rating: 4.5 stars
My review is set to go up on the 12th. It's funny that you mentioned several things that were very similar to my own thoughts, but specifically about the hormones of being pregnant. I actually read this back in August and was pregnant when I read it. Man the tears....although I think I would have cried without being pregnant though. Great review.
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