Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

  Title: Such a Rush

  Author: Jennifer Echols

  Publisher: MTV Books

  Publication date: July 10th 2012

  My rating: 5 stars

 

 

Seventeen year-old Leah has always lived by airports growing up.   Living next to one in a trailer park is the cheapest rent and thanks to Leah's loser mom, that's all they can afford.  Leah actually doesn't mind being close, she loves planes and longs to fly.  Determined to make the best of a situation and not follow in her mother's footsteps, Leah gets a job with Hall Aviation at the airport next door.  Mr. Hall takes her under his wing and is like the father she never had.  Despite her close relationship with Mr. Hall Leah feels like an outsider every summer and school vacation, when his sons come to visit.  They help fly the banner planes that make up the majority of Mr. Hall's business.   His sons are gorgeous and complete opposites, even though they're twins.  Leah stays back as a silent observer, secretly crushing on Grayson.  It's a shock and a blow when Mr. Hall dies unexpectedly, and Leah makes arrangements to work elsewhere figuring the business will be sold.  When Grayson and Alec show up to run the business, she's surprised but doesn't think it'll last for long, and Leah has no intention of staying.  However, Grayson digs something up in Leah's past and blackmails her to stay on to help fly the banners.  In addition to forcing her to stay, Grayson also wants Leah to persuade Alec to date her.  Grayson threatens Leah's future hopes of flying so she has no choice but to cooperate with his scheme.  She can't figure out why Grayson wants her to attract Alec, and he refuses to tell her.

One of Jennifer Echols great strengths as a writer is her ability to write perfectly flawed but relatable characters, so I connected with Leah instantly.   I felt protective of her and rooted for her to triumph and rise above her situation.  This is an accomplishment with the horrible excuse of a mother she has, one of the worst I've come across in fiction!  Her mother only cared about herself, and Leah had to be on constant guard so she wouldn't take advantage of her.  The mother relied on Leah to work and pay bills while she had no job, being too occupied with her current disaster of a boyfriend.  In the beginning of the story I was on edge because Leah was vulnerable as a target from the shady characters in the trailer park.  All because her mother's neglect left her open to these kinds of situations.  I was glad she had the airport as safe haven to escape to.

Grayson was another flawed character that grew on me.  I didn't like him at first.  He wasn't all that nice, and his insistence for Leah to lure Alec in irritated me.  Also he made assumptions about Leah I didn't care for.  But as the mystery behind his behavior unravels, I began to understand his motivations and ended up falling hard for him.  Grayson fights but can't help his attraction to Leah.  He truly cared for Leah and was protective of her.   Another one of Ms. Echols strengths is her ability to write some knee-weakening, steamy scenes.  Trust.  She delivers in this story:

"Hey, I told you.  Lately my brain isn't working right.  I feel one thing, but I act a different way and it surprises me.  I don't know where my words are coming from half the time.  But you…" He kissed my check.  "Gosh…"  He kissed my lips, then backed away to look at me again.  "You know what?  Let me show you how I feel."  I gasped as he trailed kisses down my cheek, down my neck,……...  Well, you get where this is going, so I'll just leave it at that.

I highly recommend this.  It's right up there with my other favorite Jennifer Echols novels: Going Too Far and Forget You.  This does not disappoint!

Thank you so much Tina for lending me your precious copy!!