New Adult Romance published April 28, 2015
Atria Books
Author's website | Goodreads
Synopsis from Goodreads
It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating’s world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.My Thoughts...
If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.
She's not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.
But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it's time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.
Which was the plan all along.
Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.
She's going to show them all.
As with my review of Leah Raeder's last book Unteachable, I am going to keep this review rather short. Partially because this book wasn't my favorite and partially because it's hard to review without giving too much away. As I stated in my other review I think that her writing is fantastic, but with this book it got a little mixed up in an abundance of pop culture references, quoted poetry and a somewhat convoluted story line. I gave this 3 stars on Goodreads and that last star is because I do like the way she writes...for the most part.
For me, Laney was never a likable character and her story was just a little too dark for me. I really didn't identify with any of the characters so that was probably one of the reasons that I didn't enjoy the book overall. A lot of it read like a preachy message about bullying gay/queer (her term, not mine) teens and that wasn't what I was expecting when I read the blurb. Don't get me wrong this is a message that's important and one that everyone needs to hear. For me, the issue was all in the execution of that message. I also had a harder time following the time line. Each chapter is back and forth and it's not even linear in how it does it. There no then and now, it's April this year, October last year, January this year, July last year, and so on and so forth. There are chunks of it that are hard to read through because Laney is, as she describes herself, an unreliable narrator.
There is heavy (under 21) drug and alcohol use, lots of profanity, descriptive sex between f/m, f/f and f/m/f as well as suicide and a plethora of other psychoses in this story line. I just finished reading it in just 2 sittings today so it did keep my attention long enough to finish it, but I have to be honest and say that the story just wasn't my cup of tea, if you will. This will not deter me from reading more of Raeder's work and if you like a dark, sexy, psychological thriller/romance then this may be something you would like. I will say that Raeder can write a nice love scene, even if her characters are a little bit out there sometimes.
XOXO, Shelly
*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*
BLACK IRIS by Leah
Raeder
Atria Books Paperback | 384 pages |
ISBN: 9781476786421 | On sale: April 28,
2015 | $15.00
eBook: Atria Books | 384 pages |
ISBN: 9781476786438 | On sale: April 28,
2015 | $5.99
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