16 February 2015

Book Review: I'll Meet You There

Title: I'll Meet You There
Author: Heather Demetrios
Genre:  YA Contemporary Fiction
Published: 2015
Rating: 




Brief Overview: Skylar and Josh know each other casually through school and worked together at the Paradise Hotel, but their relationship changes when Josh returns home from Afghanistan. Josh is injured physically and psychologically from his time overseas. Meanwhile, Skylar is dealing with problems at home and preparing to leave for college.

Themes: PTSD, friendship, love, loss, war, alcoholism, mother-daughter relationship

Characters:
Skylar Evans: Skylar's character felt a little dull to me. She is the artsy girl with a bright future and a troubled home life. She seems like a token YA main character to me. She was of course innocent and a virgin. She seemed at times to be a construct so Josh would have someone to love. Further in to the book, she makes an out of character bad life choice which seemed only semi-believable to me given her usual good behavior. Skylar's friends and family have interesting lives that affect hers, but I wish she was more of a unique character herself.

Josh Mitchell: Of the two main characters, Josh has more depth. He is flawed. He can be rude and hurt peoples feelings, he is angry, and he is popular. And while he has some white knight moments, that's not the kind of love interest he is. He has his own issues to deal with. He must come to terms with an injury, loss and intense guilt. The only thing about Josh that I found a little cliche was the fact that he insists on protecting Skylar from himself, instead choosing self destructive coping methods when of course - as in most YA books -  they turn out to be the best thing for each other.

Impressions: One thing I love about this book is that the author sets up a realistic small town. Everyone knows each other, everyone has a reputation. My only problems with the book were the few issues with the characters mentioned above. I loved the way that Skylar and Josh were able to support each other through difficult times. I also liked that beneath a simple love story was the fact that each character has their own problems to deal with. Josh is fighting an internal battle of guilt and Skylar must make decisions to be her own person despite the needs of her mother.Neither character fixes the other's problems.That is something each must do on their own. 

What to read next: Something Like Normal (Trish Doller) or Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell)



Like this post? Bee Reads Books

7 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh yes I really wanna read this one! I loved Something Real (have you read that one yet?) and I've heard nothing but excellent things for this one.

    Excellent review, Bee! <33

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have seen a couple reviews on this one now - it looks good ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry to hear that you had some issues with Skylar and Josh! I picked up I'll Meet You There over the weekend because I was in the mood for a slow burn romance and I ended up loving it. It has echoes of Something Like Normal so that's a good choice for your next read. Also Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols.

    ReplyDelete
  4. YAY So happy to hear that you liked I'll Meet You There, it's been on my kindle for the longest time so I'm gonna start soon. I just hope the characters won't annoy me as much…

    www.lite-rate-ture.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah, Skylar does seem pretty cliche, so it's good the male main character has a bit more depth! I was reading and liking the author's other book, Exquisite Captive, but didn't get to finish it before it went back to the library D: Ah well. Nice review!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I LOVED this book! I thought Skylar was a pretty good character, especially for YA, but I do agree that Josh had more depth.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...