Title: Chasing Spring
Author: R.S. Grey
Release Date: Feb 1, 2016
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I thought I’d left Blackwater, Texas behind for good. I didn’t belong in the small town, but my dad wouldn’t listen. He dragged me back home in his beat-up truck and dropped a bomb along the way: Chase Matthews was moving in with us. He was the golden boy of my high school, my former best friend, and the last person I wanted sleeping across the hall. His presence was too great a reminder of the ghosts I was trying to forget.
I didn’t ask for a hero. I don’t want to be saved.
To me, Lilah Calloway meant late nights sneakin’ out, moonlit hair, and sparklers in July. She was my best friend until the day she left and I’d assumed Blackwater had seen the last of her. Then, like a tempest, she rolled back into town for the final half of senior year. The chopped hair and dark devil-may-care attitude warned most people away, but I knew if I fought hard enough, I could find the lost girl.
I didn’t want to be her hero. Some girls don’t need to be saved.
I really didn’t know what to expect going into this book, especially since this is not the kind of book that R.S. Grey usually writes. It was definitely not a romantic comedy! Despite the emotional tone of this book, it was refreshing to read a YA book after a long time of reading only NA and erotica.
Both Chase and Lilah have some not-so-great families, though their parents are what brought them close in the first place, so at least there’s that. This book starts in the present and then goes back into the past to show the important parts—the parts that made them both who they are today. I liked that, in those past moments, we also got to see some different POVs. That really added another aspect to this book.
Lilah was such a lost girl. She was so determined not to be like her mother. She didn’t want to hurt people the way she did. At some points I really wanted to get into her head and tell her that she wasn’t like her mother and no matter what happened she wouldn’t become her.
Chase is the golden boy who has always been Lilah’s best friend...until she left. Now that she’s back, he has to make her want to be friends again, though it is going to be hard. Lilah wants to stay away so she doesn’t end up hurting him.
I loved this book and the emotion that it contained. There was a lot of background that effected these two characters and the information is revealed in pieces until you find out the whole story of what had happened. I liked that it that way, always trying to think of what they could have gone through. There was some unnecessary drama and some decisions that I kind of rolled my eyes over but that’s typical when you are reading about kids in high school.
I very much liked the simple ending and how everything came together. Lilah and Chase were such great characters that had a lot of depth. Even though this isn’t what R.S. Grey normally writes, she knocked it out of the ball park. She knows how to bring the emotion out of you and keep you turning the pages until you reach the end. I look forward to reading more from this author.
~ Review by Leah
I am a lover of books, chocolate, reality TV, black labs, and cold weather. Seriously, if I had it my way, I would be curled up on the couch with all of those things... everyday.
I live in Texas where I spend my free time writing and reading. My favorite authors include Mindy Kaling & Jonathan Safran Foer. I'm a comedy geek and love all things "funny". Women like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling are definitely the biggest inspirations for my writing, though I think my work tends to skew a bit smuttier than theirs.
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