My Thoughts
Beautiful, real, introspective, incredibly heartfelt
and brilliantly written!
Absolutely one of my favorite reads of the year!
- Related Posts: 6-Star Reads; 2013 Favorites
Synopsis
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.
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.
My Review
Wow. I absolutely loved this book! You should know, THIS is the type of book I really love. It felt so real to me, I felt every character, every moment. I like that it’s not insta-love between the two main characters, it slowly builds, deepening the connection between them as their lives entwine in so many ways that they can’t imagine the course of their lives without the other.
Blue Echohawk, in her too-tight jeans and heavy makeup, is used to getting attention. In her loneliness, the attention she gets from other guys is just enough to make her forget the reality of her solitude.
“When I was being held or kissed or touched, I felt powerful and I felt wanted.”
Blue has no mother, no father, no real family she knows about. She’s had a terribly painful past… much of it she doesn’t even know herself. At around 2 years old, she was left in a truck by her mother and raised by a quiet and dependable man that she loved, then tragically lost when she was still young. Even now, she isn’t certain of her age.
Walking into her senior year of high school, her life’s trajectory is on the brink of change as she enters her history class and meets her new, good-looking British teacher, Mr. Wilson. He “wakes” her up… gets her interested in the stories he tells… inspiring her… getting to her in a way no one had in a long while.
“Maybe it was the stories I was drawn to. Every day it was a new story. And quite frequently, the stories were about women in history, or told from the perspective of women. Maybe it was just Mr. Wilson’s obvious love of the subject he taught. Maybe it was simply his cool accent and his youth.”
Her teacher, Darcy Wilson, is young at 22 years old. He’s intelligent, passionate and kind. And let me tell you, I undeniably and completely fell head over heels for “Mr. Darcy.” Wilson, as everyone calls him, is everything Blue needs in her life at the moments she needs someone the most.
“I’ve had a lot of ugly in my life, Wilson. Lately the ugly has gotten to be more than I can take.”
Wilson inspires Blue to question her choices…
“What we believe affects our choices, our actions, and subsequently, our lives.”
… to let go of the tragedies she has so heavily carried for so long. He makes her believe that things, that she, could be different if she chooses it so.
“What if there was a way to let them go forever? What if I could be different? What if life could be different? What if I could be somebody?”
And of course, like many times in real life, just as Blue starts to believe that she can alter her path, new tribulations shadow her future.
As I experienced the story, my heart kept breaking, piece by piece. This girl had gone through so much. And even then, I can’t tell you how much I love Blue. Her circumstances didn’t shatter her, didn’t weaken her. She’ s a survivor… resilient, intelligent and deeply introspective, but she’s also someone who feels so profoundly. She loves and when she does, it’s with her whole heart.
“I’m always reeling with you. Just when I think I know all there is to know, you reveal something that absolutely guts me.”
The way Wilson and Blue fall in love is so beautiful and perfect, but it doesn’t come easily. There’s obstacles they need to overcome together and Blue has so much to work through on her own. This story is just so poignant and brilliantly written with layer upon layer of meaning and introspection. My connection with the characters was deeply rooted and thus evoked so much feeling in me. I honestly cannot say enough wonderful things about this book. There are multiple topics touched, but to me, this story is really about a girl believing she can have a different outcome in life… that she can pave a different path… it’s about “looking beyond what is obvious to what is possible.”
I’ll tell you that when the story ended, I wanted more. A lot more. 100+ pages more. It was such an emotionally powerful book that it had me in tears one moment and smiling the next. I was so moved and taken by it that I was truly sad to see it end. Luckily, there’s an epilogue (read it here), but even then, I think it has so much depth that I honestly believe Amy could write at minimum, a full novella about these two incredible people and their continued journey. This is by far one of my favorite reads of the year! Stunning book! A must-read! I can’t wait to read more books by the talented Amy Harmon!
