Girl on the Brink by Christina Hoag Genre: YA Romance/Thriller Publication Date: August 30, 2016 Format: I received a copy to review as part of a blog tour hosted by YA Bound Book Tours. You can purchase a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Brink-Novel-Christina-Hoag-ebook/dp/B01K9L996A Summary: The summer before senior year, 17-year-old Chloe starts an internship as a reporter at a local newspaper. While on assignment, she meets Kieran, a quirky aspiring actor. Chloe becomes smitten with Kieran's charisma and his ability to soothe her soul, torn over her parents' impending divorce. But as their bond deepens, Kieran becomes smothering and flies into terrifying rages. He confides in Chloe that he suffered a traumatic childhood, and Chloe is moved to help him. If only he could be healed, she thinks, their relationship would be perfect. But her efforts backfire and Kieran becomes violent. Chloe breaks up with him, but Kieran pursues her relentlessly to make up. Chloe must make the heartrending choice between saving herself or saving Kieran, until Kieran's mission of remorse turns into a quest for revenge. My Thoughts: I had never seen or read any of Christina’s other works so I wasn’t too sure what to expect from her writing style or how the story was going to pan out. For a book with the title like this one, the beginning of the book was way to calm. Like I expected the book to have way more of a bang to it’s beginning. But it had the underlying feeling that something bad was going to happen very, very soon. It starts off relatively calm, with Chloe interviewing the owner of the flower shop for a article in a small local newspaper/web station, and somehow meets this guy, Kieran, who works at the flower shop. Now, I’m not even sure how the story somehow turns to Kieran and Chloe’s relationship. Like it was totally out of the blue. Suddenly the story builds up relatively fast. Slowly, Kieran gets more and more aggressive in their relationship, and I have more of a reason to dislike him. I had the feeling that he was in the relationship for his own personal benefit, and that he didn’t mean anything that he said to Chloe, and he was going to take advantage of everything Chloe had to offer. He had Chloe telling him everything, but slyly didn’t tell her anything about himself. He was also lying a lot, and contradicted himself, for his benefit. Kieran wasn’t the best of influences on Chloe. He convinced her to blow off her friends on multiple occasions and constantly bothers her even when she deliberately tells him to give her space. Also did I mention that he followed her home one day just to see where she lived?? That’s just plain stalking. One thing that bothered me was the age difference between the two. I mean, I know it’s only a 2 year age difference but Kieran is 19 and is pursuing a minor, taking her to parties with his friends. It was an element that really bothered me but it helped drive the plot along. He is also super possessive of Chloe and not in a good way. (Actually, when is being possessive ever a good thing?) When I say that the book progresses fast, I really do mean fast. Like the book went by so fast and I didn’t even realize it. Also a lot of the things in the book happen a lot in reality, but there were things that Chloe could have done to prevent herself from the abuse. There were a lot of times where I just wanted to scream at Chloe and tell her to grow up and stand up for herself. I don’t get what she sees in Kieran, but to each, themselves right? I do love how the book ends, with Chloe solving the problem herself, using resources that she has. It’s pretty cool to see the case close, although I thought that Kieran did not get what he deserved. I’m just going to leave it at that to avoid any spoilers. Overall, this book passed by my original standards for it. I give it a 8/10 (4/5 stars). I enjoyed the author’s writing style and I felt like the plot was very well developed. There were a couple points in the book where I wanted to just quit halfway but I’m so happy that I didn’t because the ending was worth it. What did you think about the review? Will you go and pick it up? Leave me all your thoughts in the comments below or find me on social media, @BrookeEvans2001 on Twitter and @thecozylittlebooknook on Instagram. Don’t forget to check out all my other posts and review from this week! ~Brooke
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About me!Brooke's a high schooler who loves to read all sorts of books. She's happy to be able to share all the books she's reading with all of y'all. Archives
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