Book Blurb:
The Way It Hurts by Patty Blount
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: August 1, 2017
There may be two sides to every story, but sometimes there’s only one way to set things right…
Music is Elijah’s life. His band plays loud and hard, and he’ll do anything to get them a big break. He needs that success to help take care of his sister, who has special needs. So he’d rather be practicing when his friends drag him to a musical in the next town…until the lead starts to sing.
Kristen dreams of a career on stage like her grandmother’s. She knows she needs an edge to get into a competitive theater program—and being the star in her high school musical isn’t going to cut it. The applause and the attention only encourage her to work harder.
Elijah can't take his eyes off of Kristen's performance, and he snaps a photo of her in costume that he posts online with a comment that everybody misunderstands. It goes viral. Suddenly, Elijah and Kristen are in a new spotlight as the online backlash spins out of control. And the consequences are bigger than they both could have ever imagined because these threats don’t stay online…they follow them into real life.
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My Review:
5 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Heart-Wrenching, Romance, Teen--
Elijah wants his band to succeed, and is willing to do anything to get them the recognition that he feels they deserve, even if it means playing tamed down music at the county fair for exposure. Kristen has her summer figured out, but when she is rejected from the Arts program she auditioned for she is crushed, but goes to perform in her school's performance because the show must go on. When Elijah sees Kristen perform, he knows that she is just what his band needs to step up their game. The hard part will be to convince his band-mates and Kristen the same... And to keep his feelings out of the mix.
I have been so lucky in the books that I have tackled recently because they have all been really enjoyable reads, making me so sad to put one down for fear the next can't live up to the high expectations I currently have. Well, this book was love for me. I had anticipated to like the story, pretty much due to the music aspect and the push-pull relationship hinted at in the synopsis, but I was caught off guard by the love I felt while reading this story. I was swept up by everything that was this book: the banter, the emotional turmoil the characters deal with, the family bonds, the angst, the pull of romantic love, the disappointment of failure, the humor of the battle of the sexes, the high of performing, the hurt others can cause, and the twitter battle and reality of harmful social media. I felt so many emotions while reading, and was on the verge of tears a few times without even being aware they were coming until my chest was tight with emotion. You want feels? Then you have come to the right place. The best part of the story was how Patty mixed the flair and flamboyant Broadway style with the dark gritty world of Heavy Metal. As a side note, I don't think the cover did the book justice, don't get me wrong it's an ok cover, but I feel like the story was so much more than what the cover seems.
This story was about family, relationships in general and the big factor that ties them all together- Music.
The things that stood out to me the most was Elijah's relationship with his special needs sister Anna and Kristen's grandmother Etta. Elijah loves his sister, regardless of how difficult she can be and he is willing to bend over backward to make her happy, which is uncommon for a teen, who are usually so focused on themselves at that age. You find out pretty late in the story that she is part of the autism spectrum, but the signs were around. I liked that Elijah never saw her as a burden, but instead he could see her intelligence and potential, and would do whatever he could to let her be herself. The fact he sings to her to calm her and has fully clothed, totally not inappropriate (regardless of what his mom says!) bath time with her was heart warming. Etta was such an influential person to Kristen, she inspired her to follow in her footsteps, her quotes help Kristen make life choices and she was the encouragement that Kristen needed to make her big choice- with out Etta, Kristen would never have been where she ended up.
This was my first book by Patty and I enjoyed her writing, the pacing, and use of social media- mixing the text conversations with actual conversation to keep it relevant for the time. She created people I felt for, that I loved, that I rooted for, and I believed in. And the ending was just what I wanted, a nice wrap-up to the story that covered everything I wanted to know (I love having a book with no loose ends). This was an emotional roller-coaster for me, with some amazing highs and some low lows, but I would not change a single thing. This is perfect for someone who wants some feels and romance with their music. Rock on!
I received this title in return for my honest review.
Author Bio:
Native New Yorker Patty Blount is the award-winning author of several critically acclaimed internet issues novels for teens as well as a few adult contemporary romances. She is inspired to write by such greats as Judy Blume, JK Rowling, and Gayle Forman. In fact, Judy Blume is the reason Patty elected to write under her real name…so she’d appear on shelves next to her idol. Patty adores writing; she’s written everything from technical manuals to song lyrics (see THE WAY IT HURTS, coming August 2017). Patty wants you to know she loves chocolate…really, really loves chocolate.
When not crushing on actors Gilles Marini or Sam Heughan, Patty can be found sitting in traffic somewhere on the Long Island Expressway, listening to audio books or talking wildly to herself about plots and characters. Prone to falling madly in love with fictional characters, Patty suffers frequent broken hearts when they all invariably prefer the heroine to her… go figure. When she’s not writing, Patty loves to watch bad sci-fi movies and live tweet the hilarity, and scour Pinterest for ideas on awesome bookcases. Patty lives on Long Island with her family in a house that, sadly, lacks bookcases.
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