I thoroughly enjoyed Heather Demetrios's paranormal romance, Exquisite Captive, and I couldn't wait to read another book by her. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced reader's copy of the book.
Description: If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.
Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.
Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.
Review: I'll Meet You There is mixture of a coming of age, love story, and a war story. It is the story of two lost teens, Skylar and Josh, who live in a very small, rundown town in California, who are struggling to escape from their personal demons and desperately searching for a fresh, new start.
Skylar lives in a trailer with her mother and struggles to keep her little family afloat in the aftermath of her father’s death years before. She dreams about leaving her town of deadbeats and dead-ends for a new beginning of studying art in a college in San Francisco. I liked Skylar and admired her for taking up so much responsibility for a teen, acting more like the adult than her mother, as well as her resilence to move forward despite watching helplessly as her mother goes on a downward spiral into alcohol abuse.
Unlike Skylar it took me a while to warm up to Josh due to his several defensive walls that he built around himself and tries to distract himself from his own thoughts by seeking refuge in bad hookups and drinking. It is obvious that Josh is not the same person after his deployment. Most notably he is missing part of his leg and harbors internal wounds from the war. Demetrios does a great job in describing and tackling the issue of PTSD as well as survival guilt that slowly eats away Josh, which is clearly evident in the short chapters written in Josh's stream of consciousness.
The romance between Skylar and Josh is subtle and slow burn. They slowly begin to forge a friendship though I would say that definitely use each other as a distraction more than an anchor. Personally, I was not convinced of Skylar and Josh's relationship. I didn't feel any chemistry between the two characters mainly because I grew frustrated with both of them when they would not be open about their problems and they could have prevented melodrama and heart ache had they communicated effectively. Despite this issue, however, I did like how the romance did not conquer all of Skylar's and Josh's problems, but gave us a hopeful ending that they are on a hopeful and bright path. Overall I'll Meet You There is an enjoyable read that romance fans would certainly enjoy.
Skylar lives in a trailer with her mother and struggles to keep her little family afloat in the aftermath of her father’s death years before. She dreams about leaving her town of deadbeats and dead-ends for a new beginning of studying art in a college in San Francisco. I liked Skylar and admired her for taking up so much responsibility for a teen, acting more like the adult than her mother, as well as her resilence to move forward despite watching helplessly as her mother goes on a downward spiral into alcohol abuse.
Unlike Skylar it took me a while to warm up to Josh due to his several defensive walls that he built around himself and tries to distract himself from his own thoughts by seeking refuge in bad hookups and drinking. It is obvious that Josh is not the same person after his deployment. Most notably he is missing part of his leg and harbors internal wounds from the war. Demetrios does a great job in describing and tackling the issue of PTSD as well as survival guilt that slowly eats away Josh, which is clearly evident in the short chapters written in Josh's stream of consciousness.
The romance between Skylar and Josh is subtle and slow burn. They slowly begin to forge a friendship though I would say that definitely use each other as a distraction more than an anchor. Personally, I was not convinced of Skylar and Josh's relationship. I didn't feel any chemistry between the two characters mainly because I grew frustrated with both of them when they would not be open about their problems and they could have prevented melodrama and heart ache had they communicated effectively. Despite this issue, however, I did like how the romance did not conquer all of Skylar's and Josh's problems, but gave us a hopeful ending that they are on a hopeful and bright path. Overall I'll Meet You There is an enjoyable read that romance fans would certainly enjoy.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Words of Caution: There is strong language including homophobic slurs, underage drinking and drug usage, two sex scenes which are mentioned but not in graphic detail. Recommended for Grades 9 and up.
If you like this book try: Something like Normal by Trish Doller, The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry,
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I've actually read most of this book and then I just gave up because it has several of my deal breakers. I can't mention them here because there are spoilers, but I have very little patience and zero tolerance for certain things. And Josh did something towards the end that just can't be excused.
I really do want to try this author but I think I will start somewhere else even though I know this wasn't a bad read, I want something more stand out first I think.
Wonderful review!
I had many of the same feeling you did. I went into this one expecting a fantastic read after all the great reviews and I thought it was a litlle lackluster and it was the same old same old. Not very impressed.
Hm... sounds like unnecessary angst. Ugh. For some reason that kept me from reading this although I only heard good reviews. Looks like my instincts were right. It doesn't sound horrible so I do think I will try her again. I loved Exquisite Captive as well!
I saw some really great reviews for this one, Rummanah, and decided to give it a try, but then gave up because I couldn't get into it. It's too bad the romance was so frustrating, but I like that the characters' problems don't just disappear when they enter into a romance, a major pet peeve of mine.
"I would say that definitely use each other as a distraction more than an anchor" I like the way you put this and I've certainly seen this done in other novels too. Maybe not the romantic relationship that the author is going for! So that's too bad, but it's good that you liked this one overall! I might check this one out sometime.