4/20/2016

chasing spring // r.s. grey

published: 2016 // pages: 301 (ebook)
isbn: 978-1519536617
read: 4/19/2016



I love secrets and I'm good at finding them. For the last two years, I've sat and waited and watched, I've learned to collect secrets, one by one, because secrets are flames and no place deserves to burn more than my small town.
Prologue


what a freaking prologue. 
that alone got me hooked. 


id seen this book all over instagram and I took a screenshot (like I do with all of the books I want to read) and I thought to myself that I'd eventually get to it. 
well, as luck would have it, on the second to last day of my free kindle thingamamober thing, I saw that this book was one of the "free" options. lucky me, it's free when I don't have time to read it. I was getting ready to head to Barnes and Noble to buy it after work if I somehow didn't get to finish it on time before my trial expired....luckily....

love love love LOVE LOOOOVED it!
I must have if I managed to finish it in 6.5 hrs!
typical YA love story kind of book but I loved it!


you don't know from the get go what the premise is about and when you sorta think you have it figured out, it twists another way. 
and just then when you do think you have it figured out (once again), BAM! switches again! 
(at least it did for me.) 


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so, here's Amazon for you and then ill spill the beans! 


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.
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****SPOILERS****


Lilah returns home after running away from her problems only to have Chase, who was a huge part of her past, living right across the hall from her. 


They both know each other because their mothers were best of friends. 
except that their friendship was a toxic one. (the mothers not the kids) 
Growing up Lilah's mom, Elaine, was a witness to her own mother being abused by her father. so when any of that happened, her mother would send her over to Hannah's house to spare her. ever since they were kids, they've been attached to each other. from both being pregnant together to eventually "ending" each other. 


Elaine grew up to have a drug and alcohol problem leading her to leave Lilah and her husband behind. (even though she did want to be a part of Lilah's life) and she only really had Hannah to always back her up. 


to not make this long, lets me just spill it for you. so stop here for sure. 


Elaine owes big time drug dealers money (I'm talking like 20k) and because she had no money, she stoops low enough to suggest that they rob Hannah's home. it won't complete it all but it's something better than nothing; giving her another day to live. 
except that the night they went, Hannah was home (she was supposed to be at a fair) and ultimately, that ended up costing her her life. so Elaine, trying to save herself the night before ended up costing her her own "guardian angel" as she used to call Hannah.  


that's basically the big secret. 
her mother ended up costing them his mother's life. 


Lilah ran away because even though her mother had abandoned her at a young age, she still felt that by "denying it all" she could hold on to her own version of her mother. and if no one was there to make her face it, then she'd be fine. 
that why she stops talking to Chase. 1) because he can't make her see it if she avoids him and 2) because as much as she wants to be with him and love him, she's afraid to turn in to her mother and damage him as well. 


throughout the whole book she wants to learn as many secrets as she can so that she can I guess burn everyone in her town for always giving her so much shit. 
and if I'm being honest, that bugged the crap out of me but I mean, I guess I can understand. 


eventually, yes. they do end up together but it's after trial and error and after he leaves her so she can learn that maybe she isn't like her mother and she can in fact end up being happy. 
and in-between there's a bunch of other drama. Like Trent (!) and Kimberly and Chases' father and whatnot. 
****SPOILERS OVER****


overall, I really did enjoy this book. I mean I must have if I read it in a few hours. 
I read a couple of comments on goodreads saying that this was one of her least readable books but I loved it and if I loved this one, I can't wait to dive in to her other books. 


as always (at this point I feel like I sound like a broken record x's 10) there is a bunch more stuff I left out. 
if you can, pick up the book, and if you already have, let me know what you think. 


and with that, I leave you with 2 of my favorite quotes in the book. 


"think about it. Does the ending even matter? shouldn't the middle be the happy part? it's the biggest chunk of our life, and yet no one ever asks if two people had a happy middle. they care too much about the ending." -Chase.


we have grand visions of our lives because we assume we are the center of the universe while in reality, the universe doesn't even realize we're there. - Lilah



thanks for reading <3

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