I lived in paradise, and I loved Spencer Pierce.
At fourteen, my life was perfect. The beach was my playground, and the boy who stole my heart lived just around the corner. But perfect never lasts. In one horrifying moment, I lost it all. My family was destroyed, and the boy I believed in turned his back on me. Paradise became a nightmare.
That was five years ago. Everything changed when we moved from our home by the sea. I’ve changed, and I don’t like who I’ve become. I miss the smiling, carefree beach girl who disappeared that terrible night. I want to find her again. I want to face the people we ran from so long ago. Most of all, I have to face Spencer. So I can prove that when he broke my heart, he didn’t break me.
But when I see him again, Spencer Pierce is no longer the boy from my memories. He’s now a man who could devastate me if I let him. He watches me when he thinks I’m not looking. There’s regret written on his face when he’s near. Each time I see him, my heart aches for what might have been, and I think his does too. How can I convince myself I’m over him when I suspect he never got over me?
At fourteen, my life was perfect. The beach was my playground, and the boy who stole my heart lived just around the corner. But perfect never lasts. In one horrifying moment, I lost it all. My family was destroyed, and the boy I believed in turned his back on me. Paradise became a nightmare.
That was five years ago. Everything changed when we moved from our home by the sea. I’ve changed, and I don’t like who I’ve become. I miss the smiling, carefree beach girl who disappeared that terrible night. I want to find her again. I want to face the people we ran from so long ago. Most of all, I have to face Spencer. So I can prove that when he broke my heart, he didn’t break me.
But when I see him again, Spencer Pierce is no longer the boy from my memories. He’s now a man who could devastate me if I let him. He watches me when he thinks I’m not looking. There’s regret written on his face when he’s near. Each time I see him, my heart aches for what might have been, and I think his does too. How can I convince myself I’m over him when I suspect he never got over me?
First of all, this cover is amazing. It's actually one of my favorite covers of the year! Everything about it just made me want to read this book. Yeah, yeah ... don't judge a book by its cover. But everyone does and we just don't talk about it. Well, we don't talk about it unless you're in one of those underground book clubs that meet in secret and sit around and drink rather than discuss books all the while judging adults who read young adult novels and only picking up books that are on the Oprah Book List.
With derailment #1 out of the way, let's get this review started. I've never read anything by this author before but I would be open to another one in the future. This is a really nice coming of age novel and I enjoyed pretty much everything about it. Not all authors can successfully jump between past and present in a novel and keep the reader interested but Doxer did an amazing job of just that! Play of Light switches from past to present seamlessly and the novel couldn't have been written any other way.
The story as a whole was completely heartbreaking. The beginning of the novel just rips your heart out and then it continues to happen over and over throughout the entire thing - think Nicholas Sparks. Yeah. It was that sad. I just wanted the characters to catch a break. At any time. Any kind of break but they were dealt hardship after hardship. You would think that kind of novel would be horrible to read. And it was at times. There were some times that I just didn't think I could read any more because it was just too much. Too emotional, too sad ... just too much. The ironic thing was while I wanted to take a break from this novel because it was so charged that is what really pushed me to finish reading at the same time. I just had to know how this whole thing ended. I wanted to know if everything would be okay. I NEEDED everything to be okay.
All in all, a pretty good novel and I'm looking forward to what the author has in store for future novels.
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