Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Title: Such a Rush
Author: Jennifer Echols
Publisher: MTV Books
Release date: July 10th 2012
Pages: 336
Genre: Contemporary YA; romance
Source: Bought

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High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.
But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business--until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers--and the consequences could be deadly.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Everyone else seems to turn into a fangirling mess every time someone mentions Jennifer Echols, but I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with her books. I loved Going Too Far, but the other Echols books I've read just did not work for me. Still, I've continued to read her books in the hopes that some day, I would love one as much as I loved Going Too Far. And with Such a Rush, it finally happened - it's replaced Going Too Far as my favorite Jennifer Echols book!

I've noticed that the characters in Jennifer Echols's books always have a somewhat unusual interest, and in Such a Rush, it's flying. These unusual interests don't always work for me, but in this case, it totally did. The concept of a girl pilot is just so awesomely kickass. To say I don't know much about flying and piloting would be an understatement, so I was a little worried I wouldn't get that part. But Jennifer Echols made it so relatable! I totally understood flying and what it meant to Leah. I love how that whole idea contributed to the novel!

Even asides from the flying thing, Leah is an all-around kickass character. She's not the usual MC you read about. I don't even know how to describe her; she doesn't fit any of the YA character stereotypes. I'll just say that I loved her, even though we're really different. I liked reading about her family situation, too - such a unique set-up for contemporary YA! I really enjoyed seeing Leah try to get out of that situation and take care of herself.

And then there's the romance. Oh, the romance. It is SO GOOD. There's really nothing else to say; the romance in Such a Rush just made me ridiculously happy. The description makes it sound like your typical good-boy/bad-boy love triangle, but that's not the case at all, for one because I'm not sure I'd even call this a love triangle. Grayson blackmails Leah into dating Alec but won't tell her why. Usually, storylines like that are disappointing for me; the secret often turns out to be some tiny thing, making the whole story unrealistic and melodramatic. But that's not the case in Such a Rush - Grayson's reasons really do make sense! And the romance is so good! Jennifer Echols is the master of sexual tension and realistic, mature relationships, and Leah and Grayson are no exception. I loved these two together.

My only complaint is the ending. I know it's the kind of ending lots of people love, but I just... don't. I just found it a little too sweet to be realistic.

But, really, I didn't even care; Such a Rush wasn't about the little things for me. It was just about the feeling of loving to read! I haven't been reading that much lately, but Such a Rush made it so easy to get lost in the story; it made me want to scream and shout my love for bookish things. Such a Rush is my new favorite Jennifer Echols book, and one of the best books I've read in a while!

Review: Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Title: Love Story
Author: Jennifer Echols
Publisher: MTV Books
Release date: July 19th 2011
Pages: 243
Genre: Contemporary YA; romance
Source: Bought
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For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?
Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars


I wanted to love this book. I read Jennifer Echols's Going Too Far a while ago, but have since then failed to connect with her other books. Love Story is an okay book, but it didn't have the magic I've been looking for ever since I fell in love with Going Too Far.


Let's start with the positive. I did love the set-up of Love Story. The whole idea to have these two connect by writing about each other is so unique and intriguing! And I did enjoy that aspect. I loved reading the stories Erin and Hunter write for their creative writing class, and I wish even more of them had been included in the book, since I connected with the characters' writing a lot more than with the characters themselves. It's great how Love Story focuses on bookish topics, on how Erin wants to be a novelist or at least work in publishing, since, well, that's what I'm interested in, too.


I also love that Love Story is set at college. I love new adult books, and I wish there were more of them. As a soon-to-be college student, I loved reading about what college is like for Erin! The scenes set at their dorm are awesome and really let me get a feel for what college life is like, and I can only hope I'll get roommates as awesome as Erin's. I liked reading about the Creative Writing class, even though it is a bit strange how much of Erin's life is centered around that class. Of course it's important for the story, but I thought it was weird how basically all of her friends were in that class as well.


Jennifer Echols' writing is great. Her writing is easy to read and sounds very realistic. The word 'mature' comes to mind when I think of her style - I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I just love how her books are aimed at the older set of YA readers, and how every scene reflects that. Her style is the reason I keep giving Jennifer Echols's books another chance, and will continue to do so, even if I don't connect with all of her books.


In theory, I should have loved this book, since I did like the original premise and the college setting. But a lot of it just didn't work for me, and I think the main reason is that I couldn't connect with the characters. Erin has a unique background, and what she's going through is interesting to read about. I also loved her writerly ambitions. But Erin, just Erin as a person, I didn't love. She's a pretty flat character, and I don't feel like we got to know her that well, aside form the obvious, like her family history and her career goals. And what we do get to know, I didn't like - she's very whiny and keeps complaining about every little thing. I mean, I get it - it can't be easy, suddenly being cut off from her family and money. But I just couldn't get myself to feel for her because of her stubborn and whiny attitude.


Then there's Hunter. I know Jennifer Echols can write a hell of a love interest, because she did so in Going Too Far - John After (*insert major swooning here*) is one of my favorite male leads ever. But in Love Story, I just didn't feel it. Hunter is a pretty average character - again, he has an interesting background and history with Erin, but just him, as a person, I never really got to know. I was expecting amazing sexual chemistry, because Jennifer Echols is the master of sexual tension - even in Forget You, a book that frustrated me to no end, we at least got some swoonworthy chemistry. But in Love Story, I felt... nothing. Hunter and Erin annoyed me with their attitude, how they kept going back and forth between loving and hating each other for no apparent reason, and how they just couldn't get over their stubbornness and try to work it out. The drama between these two is so over-done. I usually love when characters take some time to get together, if the author first develops the characters fully and takes her time to build up chemistry between her characters. But in Love Story, I just didn't care whether Erin and Hunter got together or not because they annoyed me so much. Erin and Hunter have none of Meg and John's amazing chemistry, and I just couldn't get myself to care about them.


An important part of Love Story is Erin's family history and the family's horse farm. And I personally was just very bored by everything about that horse farm. I know I'm breaking some kind of all-girls-need-to-love-horses rule, but I just... don't. The only thing I feel for horses is fear. I'm not interested in horses, horse riding, horse racing, horse breeding, or anything related to horses, so that whole storyline didn't really do anything for me.

Even though I loved everything about the set-up, I didn't love this book because I found both main characters flat and not very likeable, and I just couldn't connect with the story. Love Story is a pretty enjoyable read, but I didn't love it like I'd hoped I would. But even though Love Story didn't end up being the book for me, I know I'll keep reading Jennifer Echols's romantic dramas. Maybe her newest novel, Such a Rush, will be the one to take me back to how much I loved Going Too Far.

Do you have any authors you keep coming back to, even if you didn't love all of their books?

Review: Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Title: Forget You

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Pages: 292

Release date: July 20th 2010

Genre: Contemporary YA; romance

Source: Bought

Find out more: Amazon ; Goodreads

Goodreads description:

Why can't you choose what you forget . . . and what you remember? 
There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

First sentence:

Every strong swimmer has a story about nearly drowning.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I loved Jennifer Echols's Going Too Far, so I had high expectations for Forget You. I really wanted to like Forget You, but lots of things about this book just didn't work for me.

My biggest problem is probably the main character, Zoey. I couldn't really relate to her or understand her choices most of the time. I never felt like I really knew her and couldn't feel for her for the most part. Being able to relate to the main character is really important to me, so not getting Zoey's character made it hard for me to enjoy Forget You.

A few of the storylines didn't work for me, although maybe that's because I couldn't connect with Zoey. First, Zoey's relationship with Brandon didn't make sense to me at all. Yeah, they're friends before they hook up, but that doesn't change that they only hooked up once. Zoey knows he's a player, and for me it was obvious that this had just been a one-night-stand. Zoey, however, assumes they're boyfriend and girlfriend now, even though they don't talk at all during the week following their hook-up. She gets all clingy and jealous when Brandon gets closer to another girl. Even though that's stupid, in my opinion, it's not what I minded most. My real problem is that Zoey feels guilty for doing anything with Doug and keeps telling Doug that they can't be together because Brandon is her boyfriend. It seemed a little like they just needed some kind of conflict in order not to have the relationship between Doug and Zoey immediately work out, so that storyline just didn't make sense to me.

Another storyline I didn't really like is the one about Zoey's mother. I think it's a good idea, but in my opinion, the reader never got to know enough about the mother, her mental illness, how it developed, how it affects Zoey, etc. It could have added a lot to the main plot, if it had been explained more, but like this it didn't do anything for me.

What I really liked about Forget You, though, is the romance. Zoey and Doug have such great chemistry. I always found myself looking forward to scenes with these two. Everything about Doug and the way he treats Zoey is just so adorable. I love how the whole concept of Zoey not remembering what happened made this romance unique.

I did not like Forget You as much as Going Too Far, so if you haven't read either of them, I'd definitely recommend reading Going Too Far first. I didn't connect with Zoey, and that made it hard for me to get into the story. Then again, whether or not you connect with a character is different for every reader, so who knows whether it'll work for you. Either way, the romance aspect of Forget You is great, so if you like romances with unique concepts, Forget You is a worthwhile read.

Review: Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

Title: Going Too Far 
Author: Jennifer Echols
Publisher:  Pocket Books/MTV Books
Pages: 245
Release date: March 17th 2009
Genre: Contemporary YA; romance
Source: Bought at The Book Depository
Find out more: Amazon ; Goodreads 

Goodreads description:

All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far...and almost doesn't make it back.
John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won't soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won't be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge -- and over....

First sentence:

"That's the worst idea I ever heard," I told Eric.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is my first Jennifer Echols book, but I'd heard great things about her novels. Going Too Far lived up to my expectations, and it won't be my last of her novels! I read this in one sitting, and it's sort of an emotional roller coaster ride - it had me laughing at times, gasping when a secret was revealed, and angry, wanting to shake the main characters when they couldn't just be together and be happy.

At first, Going Too Far was hard for me to get into. I didn't like Meg at all in the beginning, and I didn't get why she acts the way she does. Her irresponsible decisions and the way she treats other people really annoyed me. I also found strange how much she disliked John, much more than the other cops. That made everything a little too obvious, in my opinion. But over the course of the book, Meg's character really grew on me. Once I found out about her insecurities and her past little by little, I could understand why she is that way and I could relate to her.

Even though I didn't like Meg at the beinning, the characters in Going Too Far are great. Meg and John are dynamic and complex characters. I loved finding out more and more about them and gradually getting to understand them. The way Jennifer Echols hinted at their problems but didn't reveal their secrets until the end had me guessing throuhgout the book. However, once John's secret is revealed, we don't find out too much about how that's affected him, and I really would have liked to see that elaborated on. None of the other characters are as fully-developed as Meg and John and are mainly there to show the reader what kind of people the two main characters are, but they still have some quirks that make them unique. I really enjoyed reading about Meg's relationship with her parents.

The chemistry between John and Meg is great, and the reader really feels the vibes between the two. I loved the romance aspect, but I also liked that this book isn't only about the romance - it's more about how these two people change each other and how both develop so much over the course of the novel. I especially liked the last scene and that it's between Meg and her parents instead of between Meg and John, as that made the book less corny and really showed Meg's character growth.

I feel bad about criticizing this, since as far as I know this isn't the author's fault, but I really dislike the cover and the title of this book. The cover screams superficial romance and the title Going Too Far makes it seem (or at least made me think) like this book is about sex/whether or not to have sex, etc. I don't think that does this book justice, and I didn't want to read this in public and had to hide it from my parents - it almost made me not want to read Going Too Far at all.

Despite my dislike for the cover and title and my problems getting into this novel at the beginning, Going Too Far is a great, fun read. A sweet romance with fully-developed characters and great character growth. I'm looking forward to reading more by Jennifer Echols in the future, even though most of her books have these embarrassing covers...