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 them 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.
Gritty, romantic, and ultimately hopeful, I'LL MEET YOU THERE explores the complicated lives of an unforgettable cast of characters. This is the story of teens outside the picket fence. It doesn’t soften the edges of adolescence or the individual consequences of war; it’s life on the fringes—maddening, weirdly endearing…and completely screwed up.
Let me start this by saying that I don't think that out of hundreds of books I have read has something fucked me up so thoroughly. Sorry for the strong language, but it is quite fitting if you have read this book. I don't even know where to begin this review, because it has now been moved up to the best book I have ever had the honor of reading.
I was thoroughly bawling after every chapter, some good tears, some sad, and isn't that the power of books? They make you feel something and you feel like you are inside this world and these characters, these people, are your friends. But I think that I related to this book so much more than just enjoying the characters. Not to mention they only mentioned my home town five thousand times (okay a bit of an exaggeration, but they did a lot!). This book hit home because it talks about the pulling struggles that I think any person who has gone through a tough time with their family and choosing to leave, for whatever reason, in Skylar's case, college, or Josh's, the military.
I connect with every aspect of Skylar's life on such a personal level that this could have been a biography. There is just some type of magic when the written word from someone else's brain can hit you so hard and make you sit back and think "Man, this is the truth and it is shit." I am not sure if I am making any sense it is now 4:00 AM and I have spent my entire night finishing this book and I am so speechless that I can't even think straight, because this book has just impacted my life in the most positive way and just FUCKED ME UP.
I am still in a numb shock that this book is over. Anyways, long story short, read this book please, trust me you will not regret it. I don't care if this isn't even the type of book you enjoy reading, it is 100% worth the time and effort and will make your heart swell with happiness, but also sadness and make you think and just do a ton of positive things to impact your life.
Until next time,
Britt
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