This is the very first Jennifer Echols book that I have read. I read so many glowing reviews for this book and others that she has written that I knew that I needed to read this one right away. And I LOVED it ... so, so much. I am definitely going to have to put Echols on my must read list of authors.
Such a Rush is an interesting book to me because there are so many things in this book that could have gone wrong as it was written -- things that could have made me hate the main character or hate her romantic interest or hate her best friend or hate the situations they are thrown in. Yet Echols is able to write the entire book in such a way that I can FEEL exactly what is motivating each of the characters. I can't find it in myself to hate any of them because I can understand exactly what they are going through and why they feel and act the way they do.
Leah starts the novel as a fourteen year old girl who has spent her life moving from sucky place to sucky place as her mom follows yet another boyfriend and the promise of a job and place to stay. Leah is in a rundown trailer park with little food to eat and very little of life comforts. But she chooses to walk over to the small airport adjoining her trailer court and get a small job. This leads to an opportunity for her to get some flying lessons, giving her a rush of adrenaline that becomes her life. The novel quickly jumps three years into the future after the death of Mr. Hall, her flight trainer and friend, the man who owned the airport. Now his eighteen year old twin sons are trying to keep the business going, and they need Leah to help them. That is the basic setup for the rest of the novel which is more about Leah trying to find her place in a world that she expects to chew her up and spit her out with regularity. Grayson is the twin brother who most gets Leah's heart to pound, but he has basically blackmailed Leah to form a relationship with his brother Alec. He won't explain his reasoning, but Leah goes along with the plan ... and no one is really happy about it. Everyone needs to work a bit more on their communication skills.
What I loved:
This book is so REAL. So, so real. That is what I think I loved most about the book. Leah really is in a horrible situation. She has grown up her entire life watching a mother move from man to man to man and show very little responsibility to anything. Leah does not want to become her mother, but in so many ways she mirrors her mother's actions, especially as she, consciously or subconsciously, uses her sexuality to get the things that she wants. This could have been terribly annoying to read, but in so many ways I saw the tragedy of her situation and saw Leah fighting against her very nature at times. Those struggles made her a character that I could root for. She had an uphill battle that would be full of forward and backward momentum at times, but ultimately she had the spirit to push herself beyond the trappings of a horrible upbringing. Her sometimes wacky relationship with the Hall brothers also seemed very real to me. It wasn't all warm and fuzzy. All of them had some issues they needed to work through. But they did work through them, little by little, and I enjoyed reading about them as they progressed.
Grayson. Oh Grayson! Grayson with his straw hat and his aviator glasses and his concern for the welfare of Leah, even when he didn't want to seem like he had concern for her at all. Grayson is not exactly what I would label as the perfect book boyfriend. He could seriously be a jerk at times. He often said the wrong thing and the wrong time. But he was REAL. He was flawed. And underneath all of that bravado was a heart that cared a lot for his family and Leah. I wanted to know more about him with each turn of the page. His motivations throughout the book were so hard to figure out. I found him to be a fascinating character, and I couldn't help but root for him to find a way to express his true feelings for Leah.
Leah was a great lead character as well. She seemed so desperate to leave the trailers where she was living and the life that came with them. But so many times she would resort to stereotypical "trailer trash" behavior in her actions with others. She would dress trashy to make statements to the rich kids who labeled her. She would push herself to destructive behavior at times, and often it was only her job at the airport that kept her from completely leaping off the cliff in that direction. She definitely is not a saccharin sweet kind of leading lady for this story. But that's why I liked her so much. She had a rawness that could go from admirable to shocking to sweet to almost tragic within the space of one chapter. I wanted for her to succeed so much.
Overall I found this book to be wonderful! I am definitely a new Jennifer Echols fan. I love the edginess of her writing and her ability to create a layered story that doesn't seem forced or cliche at all. Five big stars for this one, and I am definitely going to grab her earlier books to feed my new Echols obsession.
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Top reviews from other countries
Emma (Book Angel Booktopia)
Must Read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2014
Sarah Gilroy
Echols has done it again!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2013
Snoad24
Beautiful, heart wrenching story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2014