Review: Such A Rush by Jennifer Echols - Juhina

Title: Such A Rush

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publication date: July 10th, 2012

Publisher: MTV Books

Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)

Challenges: Contemporary, Debut

Source: own

Format: ebook

Pages: 325

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Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. 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 quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. 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. And they're determined to keep the banner planes flying. 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.

Such A Rush definitely held up to its title. Reading this novel was an unbelievable rush of emotions. The protagonist, Leah, was so kick butt, she was a pilot! The twin brothers, Grayson and Alex along with Leah's other friend Molly were just awesome and the whole plot was so thought out and just beautifully written, I didn’t expect any less from Jennifer Echols. 

Such A Rush had one of my favorite YA female protagonists. Leah didn’t care what people thought about her, she wanted something? She figured a way to get it. She’s smart, a fast thinker, and has unbeatable motivation. This is mainly due to her wanting to escape her current life of a mother that still thinks she’s in her 20s, countless potential step fathers, and the trailer park living. Leah has always lived in trailer parks close to the airport and has always been fascinated by airplanes so when she gets a break and starts taking lessons, she’s one step ahead to achieving her dream. When her mentor dies, the twin sons take over. This is when things start to heat up and I start to get emotionally invested in all Jennifer’s characters. 

Leah might seem tough on the outside, but man, she really needed someone to care about her, you can feel it through reading her POV; how she’s been neglected as a child and that hurt. Grayson was a jerk in the beginning, they all were, thinking Leah used her body to get what she wants, and unfortunately that’s how some men see accomplished women. Leah set them straight by being as good a pilot as them and proving them wrong. There is also Leah's only friend, a rich girl from the other side of town. Leah never understood how her, a trailer girl, could be friends with Molly. Even if she adored Molly, in her heart she always felt like she was her charity case, which just broke my heart. Leah couldn't seem to even trust in the friendships she has and even doubted their basis and sincerity of them. I honestly loved that friendship dynamic between her and Molly. 

Jennifer Echols’s narration just hooked me from the first page with how real and raw Leah's voice was. She was a girl who has been through a lot, having to work for everything she wanted, including a roof over her head, food, and even water. Jennifer understood her completely and this conveyed these honest and real emotions so precisely to us. Feelings of abandonment, loss, and despair had me tearing up at some parts in the novel, but how strong Leah was, and the slow but progressive relationship between Leah and Grayson was so sweet. The two are misunderstood and hurt people helping each other and at the same time falling for each other. It was one of the best and real YA romances I’ve read lately. Though I do have to point out that this isn't for younger readers of YA due to some scenes.  This novel is so real and honest, I was wishing throughout the book for a friend just like Leah, or even to be a bit like her. Jennifer Echols outdid herself once again and I truly can’t wait to read her next novel. Such A Rush, from its first page, was a whirlwind and a storm. Even when I finished it and weeks past, traces and evidence of that storm are still here. 

All time favorite!