Sophie Reads YA: Heather Demetrios

#RockMyTBR 2016 Challenge

Review: I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

10:00

I'll Meet You There
Series: None
Author: Heather Demetrios
Published February 3rd 2015 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Goodreads Synopsis
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.
Goodreads

Review
I bought this book last year, the same time as I bought Demetrios' Something Real, and for some reason, it's been sitting on my shelves, gathering dust, until now. Wow, I wish I could go back to when I first bought it, and tell myself to read it ASAP, it was fantastic.

In I'll Meet You There, Skylar Evans is looking forward to finishing her last summer at home, before she moves out of the deadbeat town she lives in, to her new college in San Francisco. She's been working in the local motel all through high school, and is trying to save up all she can before her big move. Local boy Josh Mitchell, who'd been a bit of a hell-raiser before joining the Marines and deploying to Afghanistan, has returned home after being injured and losing a leg. He starts back at work at the motel, and him and Skylar grow closer, though both know they are facing their own issues.

Having previously read Demetrios' Something Real, I knew I was a fan of her writing style, and had been told that this book was nothing like the other. In I'll Meet You There, it's a lot more serious, and emotional. I felt a whole plethora a emotions reading this, and know that other people were the same. There are a ton of really serious, and relevant, issues covered in the book, such as PTSD, loss of limbs, problematic family dynamics, poverty, homelessness, etc. And none of these were trivialised. Having grown up during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and having family members in the military, I feel like I've grown up hearing about some of these issues. Though I haven't personally known anyone in a similar situation to Josh, he seems to be just like people I've heard about, and it's not a simple problem. It's serious, and Demetrios has faced this issue seriously, and extremely well.

However, it wasn't only Josh who had his own issues. Skylar's family life is not good - he dad died due to a drink driving incident, and her mam hasn't coped with it well. She's the main breadwinner, and needs her job to keep the family afloat. When her and her mam butt heads one too many times, she leaves, and ends up living in the motel she works at. Both of the characters have burdens, and they combat them as best they can.

The romance was extremely swoony, and developed perfectly. Neither try to 'fix' the other, as they both understand that they're the only person able to do so. It wasn't a case, like in a lot of YA books, where falling in love can be the solution to all your problems - having another person there to talk to was perfect for each character, but each still had their issues, and dealt with them personally.

The character growth from start to finish was amazing. We really saw each character grow, and heal, and it was something they did themselves, with some help from one another. All of the story lines were beautiful in their own right, but once they were brought together, and concluded, the story was epic. This book is one I'd definitely recommend, and I can't wait to read more of Demetrios' work in the future.

Dates Read:
July 2-5, 2016

Rating
4 Stars

#RockMyTBR 2016 Challenge

Review: Something Real (Something Real #1) by Heather Demetrios

10:00

Something Real
Series: Something Real #1
Author: Heather Demetrios
Published February 4th 2014 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Goodreads Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Bonnie™ Baker has grown up on TV--she and her twelve siblings are the stars of one-time hit reality show Baker's Dozen. Since the show's cancellation, Bonnie™ has tried to live a normal life, under the radar and out of the spotlight. But it's about to fall apart . . . because Baker's Dozen is going back on the air. Bonnie™'s mom and the show's producers won't let her quit and soon the life that she has so carefully built for herself, with real friends (and maybe even a real boyfriend), is in danger of being destroyed by the show. Bonnie™ needs to do something drastic if her life is ever going to be her own--even if it means being more exposed than ever before.
Goodreads

Review
I don't know about you guys, but one of my guilty pleasures is watching that tv show, 19 Kids and Counting (now Jill & Jessa Moving On, after the whole scandal, etc.). When I heard about this book, I thought it seemed quite similar, without the religious aspect. I could not have been more wrong. Something Real was so much more than a feel good, guilty pleasure. Instead, it showed how being in the spotlight from such an early age can really mess up a person, and how, sometimes, your family aren't good enough.

Something Real starts with 17 year old Bonnie, now known as Chloe, finally settling at school. Her and her brother, Benton, are starting their senior year at high school. They've had the past 4 years to reclaim their privacy and try and get some normalcy. However, they're thrown for a loop when they get home from school to learn their mother has signed them up for a new series of the hit show, Baker's Dozen, without discussing it with them. Chloe really struggled with being in the show in the first place, and now she's faced with the real possibility of a relapse.

First things first, I adored Chloe! She was one of the realist characters I've ever seen in a book. All she wanted in life was to be a normal 17 year old, is that so much to ask?! For the first 13 years of her life, she has spent every waking moment with a camera focused on her, and had to deal with her parents adopting more and more children, until, on her 10th birthday, her 'present' was a set of triplets to 'complete the family'. It's no wonder she struggled to cope with the pressure, especially when she was blamed for her parents divorce after discovering her father in the shed with his assistant. She was just learning to let people in, and had a budding relationship growing with Patrick, and is worried that when everyone realises she isn't just 'Chloe', but is in fact Bonnie Baker, that everything will go to hell.

I really want to hug Chloe for most of the book. At every turn it seemed like the world was against, mostly in the manifestation of her mother, or the producer. The whole topic of whether or not having children life on camera constituted abuse or not was dealt with really well here, and not taken lightly. Some of the children may have appeared well rounded, and not affected by the show, but for the oldest kids - Chloe, Benton, and Lexie - there were real consequences of the show. Beth, the mother, never seemed to really care about her kids, other than them being a source of wealth for her, and treated Chloe, in particular, like something she'd trodden.

The main focus of the book was on the family aspect of Chloe's reality, but the romance was really cute too. Even when Patrick discovered Chloe was Bonnie, he didn't care. He loved her, and nothing else counting. When he realised the impact Baker's Dozen was having on her, he did everything in his power to help her escape the nightmare that was her home. For Chloe and Benton, having their boyfriend's, Patrick and Matt, there for them was more than just romantic. It was moral support, and the realisation that they could escape and try and find normality. Really, the whole book was so real (just like the title says) and I wish I had read it earlier. If you haven't tried this book yet, I recommend you do.

Dates Read:
May 9th, 2016

Rating
5 Stars