Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

About the book

Such a Rush is a stand-alone contemporary YA novel by Jennifer Echols. It was published on 10^th July by Gallery Books and it is 325 pages long.

Plot

All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs for flying lessons. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.

What I thought

Jennifer Echols is a writer who isn’t afraid to be real in her books which is why I love them.

Such a Rush tells the story of Leah, a girl with an unfortunate upbringing. All her life she has lived in trailer parks and been forced to move around due to her mother’s antics. Each new trailer park seems to be next to an airport of some kind though and this sparks Leah’s interest in flying. I have never read anything like this before in the way of the plot but that only made it interesting and exciting. I can’t say I’m really into planes and flying too much myself but it was great to see so much information put into the novel instead of making it a background idea. The airstrip plays a large part in the story and while it was a slightly strange setting, it was a good one.

As the main character, Leah was beyond awesome. Yes, she has had a rough time of it and has the mother from hell but she seems to find a way to make things work for her. Leah was extremely charismatic as well as tough and passionate. I have a strong dislike for character who whinge and whine when things don’t go right for them but this wasn’t Leah. Instead, she tried to find a way to better her life and not end up just like her mother. I really admired how hard she worked for what she wanted and also for never giving up. Leah was also really funny. She is full of quick and witty come-backs and hilarious sarcastic remarks.

Twin boys. What more could I possibly ask for?! Just as much as I loved Leah, I loved Grayson and Alec. Both boys were completely different but they both had something about them that I liked. While Grayson has a tough exterior, Alec was more straightforward and to the point. As weird as it may sound, the love triangle in this book is between Leah and the two boys. However, it isn’t quite as messed up as it sounds and I actually really liked the twist. It was interesting and different and gave the chance to get to know more about both brothers.

The thing about Jennifer Echols is that she always manages to get the right amount of romance, good plot and sexy times mixed together. I never feel as though one is overdone in comparison to another. Unlike many other YA book, Echols isn’t afraid to approach the topic of sex and I think this was her best yet in that area. The scenes are real but they also have a good moral to them at the same time which doesn’t seem like an easy thing to do to me. Her characters are also perfect. They come across as real teenagers without the idea that they don’t swear, don’t drink and never do anything really bad which is another thing that I loved about this book. Although all of the flying stuff was a bit surreal at times, everything else I could imagine really happening.

Such a Rush was sexy and romantic mixed with fun and excitement - everything that I could have wanted in a contemporary novel.