Title: Embracing Life

Author: Nicky Jayne

Genre: Honestly not sure.

Published: September 29, 2013

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Josh was obsessed with the new girl Melanie. Melanie had lived through trauma she was trying to put behind her. Her friends Mike and Katie tried to keep everyone else in the school away from Melanie to protect her.

From the beginning of the book the wording and sentence structure were awkward. I never connected with any of the characters. Up until the end the action mostly happened outside the story. We were told Melanie had talked to Mike and Katie about her problems, but the reader didn't see the conversation. We were told three years had passed and Melanie had become more secure as a person, but we were not told how she managed to get there. This was the tone for the entire book.

The first half of the book was told from Josh's point of view. I am pretty sure the author was aiming for teenage romantic angst, but in the end Josh just came off as a stalker. He would follow the girl around, obsess about her eyes and his feelings towards her. After a few paragraphs the litany of her virtues became long winded and they lasted for pages.

Mike and Katie confused me. There was more than one reference that Melanie's best interests were all they were worried about. I didn't understand why they didn't tell her Josh had a crush on her. Even more important, why didn't they try to get her help. With what she had been through she really needed psychological help, but instead of encouraging her to seek help they isolated her from the rest of the world. For her own good of course.

The end frustrated me. It was vague and a cliffhanger. The book stopped mid paragraph. Honestly I looked up the page numbers to make sure I got all the pages on my e-reader. I just want to declare I was not vested enough in the characters or the story to actually seek out the next book to find out what happened.

Overall I gave this book 1 star out of 5.