Monday, September 14, 2015

ARC REVIEW: Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru (Creative HeArts #1) by Tera Lynn Childs

Title: Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru
Series: Creative HeArts #1
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Publisher: Entangled Crush
Published: September 14th 2015
Format: eARC | Pages: 245
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Publisher
★★★★★ (5/5) Stars!!!!

Tera Lynn Childs | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

When life gives you a blank canvas, make art.

Sloane Whitaker hates everything about moving to Texas. She hates leaving behind her friends and half her family in New York, starting over senior year at Austin’s NextGen Academy, and having to say she lives in Texas. Most of all, she hates that it’s all her fault. If she wants to earn her way back to the Big Apple, she has to prove she can still be the perfect daughter.

Which means no vandalism art, no trouble at school, and absolutely no Tru Dorsey, her serial screw-up neighbor, who loves nothing more than pushing her buttons.

But from the moment he vaults onto the roof outside her bedroom, there is something about him that makes her want to break every rule. Suddenly it’s not the ten things she hates about Tru that are at the top of her list. It’s the ten reasons she doesn’t want to be without him.



I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. In no way did this sway either my review or my rating!

This is the second Young Adult Contemporary, in as many weeks, to take my expectations of mediocrity and smack me across the face with them and then completely blow me away. I always keep my expectations as low as possible for YA Contemps to try and avoid disappointment. I love being taken completely by surprise like this. My heart is so full of feelings for Sloane and Tru right now that it's almost overwhelming. The writing was beautiful, the characters were beautiful, the storyline was beautiful.

I'm absolutely in love with both Tru and Sloane. They were far from ordinary and written beautifully. And I think what really sets them apart from most teenage characters for me was the uniqueness to their voices. For the most part they are your typical teenagers full of angst and a bit of rebellion and all of that. But I feel like with how artistic they both are and the fact that they go specifically to an art school for high school has added this new flavor, this new depth to their personalities.

I was so happy that we got bits of Tru's point of view in here. You realize right away from that first dip inside Tru that any outward appearance of family perfection is nothing but a huge illusion. Though the depths to which the illusion is crafted doesn't immediately make itself known and my heart splinters into a thousand pieces when you first witness Tru's nightmare of a reality. Tru was such an amazing character. He hides his pain behind his charm and his bad boy, delinquent reputation.

I wasn't expecting this book to be as heavy as it was at times, that's for sure. So I was pretty grateful for Tru at times. He's got like this restless energy that you can feel coming through the pages. Never still, always moving or bouncing off of things, literally. So even though his story brings with it some pain, he's always there with a charming smile and doing something to give you one of your own.

I also really loved the setting, not necessarily Austin but the NextGen school since that's where a huge chunk of the book takes place. It brings with it an interesting set of characters as well. From other students to  some pretty cool and fun teachers. I feel like if I had had an opportunity to go to a place like this way back when I was in school I'd have done a lot better.

Sure I'd say a few things were pretty predictable. Like there was a person sabotaging fellow classmates and even though they leave it open to a couple suspects it wasn't hard to figure out who was guilty. A person I didn't trust from the moment I met them. But even that bit of predictability didn't take anything away from my enjoyment of this book. It was more like a "Ha! I knew it!" type of a moment if anything.

As if it isn't obvious by now, I freaking loved this book. Young Adult Contemporaries are always such a hit or miss and thankfully this one was a huge hit for me. I can't wait for the next book in this series. To the very depths of my soul I want it to be a continuation of Tru and Sloane's story. Things were left pretty up in the air and open to interpretation I guess. But I'm hoping it was left open on purpose to lead to the next book. Regardless though I'm still excited to see what will come next. If it's anything like this one was I'll be over the moon!

A huge thanks to Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book!!




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