Darker Passions

3.5 Stars

Crash Into You is a well-written, well-paced book about a young girl struggling to grow past what her family expects her to be and become more confident and independent. The main character, Rachel, has been confined to her parents’ expectations and desires for her entire life – a life that was made for her sister, who died of Leukemia before Rachel was born, and Rachel now finds herself trapped inside of. Rachel is a teenage girl who doesn’t like the spotlight and loves cars, but is being forced into the frilly pink, charity ball filled world of her mother and dead sister.

I really enjoyed watching Rachel and Elijah's relationship develop throughout the book. Her struggles of accepting herself and the fact that in order to be happy she’ll have to disappoint those who rely on her is something I connected with. Aside from the good internal character development, the development between her and Elijah was excellent too. I loved watching the both of them grow more comfortable in their feelings for each other and coming to terms with the fact that their relationship isn’t exactly conventional. Elijah being a foster kid who works in a garage and has a few tattoos and Rachel with three over-protective brothers and very rich parents, spending most of her time at charity events and school. I loved watching them grow past that and learn to really open up to each other, especially Elijah.

All in all it was an outstanding book. As with any young adult romance, there were times I wanted to pull out my hair and scream at the characters, but they always worked through their differences in a relatively timely fashion and I was never tempted to put the book down and walk away.

(I received a copy from publisher for an honest review.)