So wrong for each other …and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. 

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. 

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.




I was quite surprised by this book, I liked it more than I expected to. To be fair, lately I've been stuck in a bit of a book rut, either I'm not into it or it's just boring me. I keep picking up books that are over-hyped and I end up not understanding why they are so loved. This book is certainly one of the well-known NA books, but I actually liked it.

Although I didn't love every character and sometimes I did find myself rolling at my eyes at the name of the main character Echo, I did find the storyline quite good. 

I love a good mystery in my NA stories and this one had it. Echo had a traumatic experience in her life involving her family. You find out quite early so it's not really a spoiler that her brother gets killed in Afghanistan and her mother is slightly mental, but we get to um and ah about what really happened. There's a mystery about why Echo is so scarred and emotionally unstable, it all revolves around her parents and I love the anticipation. Although sometimes I was like 'Just tell us already!' but it did keep me reading.

Echo's relationship with the people around her were quite sad, her and her father were close until things were revealed, we find out more about her step-mother, and also her friendships were quite rocky. I guess this book proves that you don't really know who your friends are until you're in a situation that puts you at risk or when you're in a bad place. I've always believed that as it's happened to me, I really do see who my true friends are when I'm struggling with something. The same happened with Echo. She lost a friend only due to a relationship with a boy. Echo, you don't need those kind of people.

Speaking of relationships, her and Luke were always doomed. I absolutely hated Luke and not just because I wanted her with Noah, but because he wasn't a nice guy to begin with. It was obvious from his introduction that he only wanted sex and I'm glad she realised before she did something she'd regret. He couldn't even look at her scars so surely that was a sign it's not meant to be, whereas Noah is the guy for her. 

Noah's situation with his brothers was a good storyline, I really enjoyed that one. I liked how determined he was but sometimes he let himself down for not really thinking. He needed to sit down and assess the situation a bit whereas he just did things before thinking them through. Getting drunk, sleeping around and getting stoned really won't help, Noah. 
I love the character development. He does start to mature a bit, and I think that's due to Echo. He does soften up a bit and he ends up being a bit smarter than he was at the start of the book.

Noah's brothers were great, I loved it when they showed up and I have to admit, I did have this weird inkling about the adoptive parents. I always felt that something was going to emerge about them being abusive or neglecting the children but I think that was just Noah putting it into my head. It was nice to see them get a proper family again and I was so happy with the ending of the book.

When people go through a bad time, you can't help but be joyous over even fictional characters getting the ending they deserve after so much shit. 

Echo and Noah's relationship was certainly rocky, sometimes they didn't communicate enough for them to understand each other's feelings. Echo does things that most girls in these books do and that's assume. She's quite like 'I know what that means, I'm going to assume he doesn't love me' or 'he hasn't said I Love You yet, so he hates me' No, Echo. Just give the guy time. That got frustrating but I should be used to it with all the New Adult that I read.

I was surprised there weren't any sex scenes, though, and I don't mind that. It's refreshing that it wasn't filled with smut. This was a proper true story about two people who are trying to work out their own problems and trying to help each other, heal each other and love each other. I liked it a lot.

It's not my favourite book, I did take a star away from the rating because I didn't love it, but I very much enjoyed it. I found it was a tad longer than it should have been, but that might be just me being impatient. 

Overall, it's a good and interesting read. If you like New Adult, you should almost definitely enjoy this one.