How We Came To Be by Jamie Canosa may very well be my first Young Adult read. Correction: it is my first Young Adult romance. I don't count The Hunger Games because, well, the romance between Peeta and Katniss kind of took the backseat to the whole "fighting for your life" theme.
I tend to be very apprehensive about reading Young Adult novels because I find it rather unnerving when I read about or even observe teens engaging in what I believe to be adult-like behavior (ie. tangled tongues, grinding hips, shagging, etc.). Even after being badgered non-stop by my teenage daughters, I still refuse to budge on my stance on watching shows such as Pretty Little Liars and the like because there is nothing appealing to me about watching two teenagers go at it in a hot and heavy shower scene. Of course when I was a teenager, I'm sure said scene would have me giggling, blushing and swooning but as a mother of teenage girls - not so much. I say all that to say this - if the 'love scenes' in most YA are handled as beautifully as the ones in How We Came To Be, I fear I may have missed out on some amazing reads and have some catching up to do as I open myself up to a new genre.
Seventeen-year old Sara has a secret. Sadly, it's a secret that takes place in many homes. Sara and her younger sibling, Kevin, suffer abuse at the hands of their alcoholic father, a man left bitter after his wife abandons him and his children. Sara takes the brunt of the abuse since she often stands up for her brother. The only spot of sunshine in her otherwise dark days comes in the form of Ethan Harris, the school heartthrob who has had a crush on Sara since he's first laid eyes on her. Unwilling to expose Ethan to her broken life, Sara keeps him at a distance until an incident occurs that forces Sara to share her secret with the one person she's tried so hard to keep it from.
Ethan was such an amazing guy, in my opinion. I could only imagine the difficulty of his position - caring so much for Sara that he couldn't bear the thought of her enduring what she did and yet unable to intervene because he didn't want to betray her trust. I could just feel his anguish and utter helplessness. He possessed a maturity that I thought was well beyond his years and if there were any couple that I wanted to have a HEA - it was Ethan and Sara. The tenderness and care he showed towards her was so touching. This is a clean romance in that there are no actual sex scenes however, the intimacy these two shared by a simple caress or a meaningful look was so endearing to me. So very sweet.
A fairly quick read that deals with an all too-real issue, How We Came To Be is a must read.
'How We Came To Be' is only 99 cents!!!!! Grab a copy today!
Amazon (Kindle)
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