Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars
Goodreads: A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.     

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.

My thoughts: I am of two minds with this latest novel by Echols. On the one hand, the writing and storyline is fresh and a welcome addition to the YA world of literature. The protagonist is a flawed young woman named Leah with a lot of holes in her own logic. But here is a girl who genuinely sees a way out of the pattern of her life; living in a trailer park with an irresponsible mother who runs off with the next guy that makes her false gold promises.

My frustration is with Leah, the protagonist. She simply refuses to learn much from societal norms. She wants to blend in and fly under the radar. At the same time she has a lot of thoughts on the whores and sluts in the town. She talks about them a lot. Yet the visual cues never pass her synapsis. She keeps dressing like one and using her body language to get what she wants. On top of this, she has a reputation she refuses to refute even though it is based on lies. Her reasoning is that she is only trailer trash so why bother.

I did enjoy the love triangle but be forewarned of the steamy sex scene. My body temp may have risen a few degrees.

What the book lacks in predictable character responses is made up in colorful detail that paints the scenes so clearly for the reader. The process of flight, the sexual tension, the conflicts between all of the characters. Excellent writing. Steamy. Really steamy.

View all my reviews *I received a free copy of this book from publishing company in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.