Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Title: Such a Rush
Author: Jennifer Echols
Series: No
Release Date: July 10, 2012
Publisher: MTV Books
Format: ARC
Source: Annie from Small Girls PR
Add: Goodreads
Rating: 4/5

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers. 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

 This review is based off of an advance reader copy (ARC)
Special thanks to Annie at Small Girls PR for providing me with a copy!
 

Such a Rush is the second book by Jennifer Echols that I have read, and judging by the only other book I’ve read by her I wasn’t sure if I was going to become a fan or not. I’m so happy to say that I am now a fan of Jennifer Echols! Such a Rush has everything you’re looking for in a great contemporary novel. Amazing characters, a suspenseful plot, and some really great romance! Having not read many of her books before, I can’t be too sure about how good they are. But I do know that if you’re wary as to whether to read one of her books, this is the book to read!

I don’t know how to explain this book without spoiling it, but there was a lot of drama! And not in a bad way. There was family drama, boy drama, and drama with friends! It was kind of like when you see two people arguing and you know you should look away, but you can’t because it’s so entertaining. Yeah, I couldn’t put this book down because I had to know what was going to happen next. Another aspect that I liked about this book was that it didn’t shy away from sensitive topics. There are a lot of things in young adult books that are disregarded because they might seem to mature, so I liked that this book mentioned those things.

The main character, Leah is a character that you can’t help but admire. She has this really tough exterior, but as the story progresses you see that she’s not a cold person she just has goals and knows what she needs to do to reach them. There were times where I wished that Leah would just stand up for herself! Her best friend, Molly was really terrible in the sense that she would always put Leah down without even noticing. It really wasn’t that bad because it’s the way their friendship worked, I just know I wouldn’t want a friend like that. 

The romance in this book was great! It was a love triangle like hinted in the synopsis, but it wasn’t your typical one. I won’t say much for the sake of not spoiling the story, but there were definitely some surprising twists towards the end of the story... Well at least I thought so, but let’s face it. I suck at predicting outcomes. The chemistry between Leah and Grayson was insane, there was just so much of it. For most of the book Grayson was a jerk, he manipulated Leah and his brother Alec. It’s not until almost the end of the book that you actually find out his intentions, so I like to think that he redeemed himself in the end. 

My favorite part of this book hands down had to be the relationship between Mr. Hall and Leah. You didn’t get to see a lot of interactions between the two of them because he was dead within the first few chapters, but there were plenty of flashbacks. He was a great parent figure to Leah, she really had no one in her life until she started working at the airport. Mr. Hall stopped Leah from smoking, drinking, and doing all the things that were expected of her. Even after his death you can see the impact that he had on Leah because of the way she acts and treats the people around her. It was definitely a great side story to go along with all the drama in the book.

There were a few things that I didn’t like about this book, but thankfully there wasn’t anything too major. One was how there wasn’t any closure when it came to Leah and her moms relationship. Granted she was absent for 98% of the book, it’s just I wish that they had had a heart to heart or something. Actually, now that I look back on it, it’s probably better that there wasn’t because it may have seemed clique. Another was the repetition of the word aviator glasses. I get it. You’re pilots and you wear them, but after the first 10 times I have come to the realization that you wear them all the time.

Such a Rush is a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a book to get them interested in the contemporary genre. This book is on the more mature side of YA, so be aware of that before reading it. This book deals with a lot of situations that people deal with on a daily basis, so it’s a pretty easy book to relate to.