Maryse's Book Blog

Left Drowning
<—- This book. THIS BOOOOOOOK!!!! I am on a 5-star roll lately, and this just got added to the bunch! I just had a chat with Autumn (one of my book buddies) and we couldn’t stop raving together. I pretty much reviewed the book “at her”. She pulled out all of the BEST quotes, and I swear, this book touched me… (us) deeply.

I fell in love, and I got to experience alllllll that went along with that. The fun “beginning”, the getting to know the entourage, that friend/family feel <— one of the BEST parts of this book.

Blythe is a lonely girl. Devastated and sees no real hope for the future. Not really. She’s surviving, but she’s not living. She’s going through the motions, for a semblance of “normalcy”. College, phone calls to her brother, and the coping mechanisms that get her by.

Then she meets the best group I could ever hope to meet one day. And THEY are family. And then…. so is she.

And the romantic intensity?

“It’s too much. You’re too much.”

OMG the intensity!!!!! You guys. Gut-wrenching in a goooooood delicious way (oooohhh so steeeeamy!!!!), and in a bad way. The best kind of read, if you ask me.

Maryse: OMG when she found out *spoiler*. KILLED ME!!!!

Autumn: I was physically ill.

Maryse: So many other parts killed me too, like *spoiler*, but on a romantic level – I was *spoiler* I mean they were SO FREAKING *spoiler*. When she realized that they *spoiler*… ahhhhhhhhh

Autumn: It truly was a gorgeous book.

Maryse: and THEN!!! GRRRRRRRRRR! Yes it was amazing.

Autumn: “You are the great love of my life that I’m never going to have.”

Maryse: AH!!! YES! Or when she thought to herself that she knew all the things not to say but she didn’t know any of the things TO say. How many times have we thought that exact thing? Just so real.

Autumn: YES! and this: “Overwhelmed. I am entirely overwhelmed by him and by being with him.”

Maryse: *sigh*

Autumn: “Right now, I embody failure and surrender, but I see in him the possibility of what I could have.” I could relate to her in so many ways.

Maryse: Now… I knew *spoiler* was coming. BUT!!!! even if I knew I still totally indulged in it.

Autumn: I felt raw.

Maryse: Yep. Boy, can she write. Jessica Park blew me away.

(lots of spoilers here so…. *spoiler* *spoiler* *spoiler* *spoiler*) 😉

Maryse: Alright time to buck up and create words to describe my love…

Do you guys get the picture? This is another one of those.

Claudia: I read “Left Drowning” yesterday , and i don’t know how to tell you ladies how much I loved! This is not your everyday love story, you are going to suffer with the characters, so prepare yourself 😉 I would give 1000 stars if i could.

Sadie: Me too – so good!! It sure was hearbreaking and so intense at points. Quite a departure from FOL, which I also loved.

Kristi: Claudia, I could not agree more. This was heartbreakingly beautiful story. I loved it. Written so well and told in such a way that gave me chills!! READ THIS BOOK!!!

Oh right. What’s it about? Well I’m so happy to tell you (I haven’t been able to get this book off of my mind all day, and I don’t want to. I’m happy with it right where it is. Front row and center)!

Blythe is in college but barely “there”. She drinks, she parties, she copes. But she isn’t connecting.

So I add frigid to the list. To that stupid mental inventory I try so hard not to keep. An increasingly large list of all my flaws. My inadequacies. My failures.

Having lost her parents as a teenager to incredibly tragic circumstances, she and her brother have absolutely NOT gotten over it. Years later, and they are hurting each other, and hurting themselves. A wonderful childhood, turned into a nightmare in the last stages of their young adult lives.

And by chance, she meets the quirkiest cute guy in a coffee shop.Well, he meets her. Forces her, really. 😉

I blink a few times and wait to see if his one-man show is over. He tips his head to the side and continues looking at me while I try to figure out what to do next.

He leans forward. “Too much?”

Yes, you weirdo, just a bit. But I say nothing.

*giggle* I loved… all of this.

And then she meets another less quirky, but seriously cute guy, and soon connects the dots that this duo are part of a dynamic, effervescent group of siblings that she’s about to become a HUGE part of.

And I’m going to stop it there. ‘Cause while this IS a love story of epic proportions, there is so much more than that. Every character adds to…. NO…. creates this story, the love angle, the angst. The past. The present. And maybe even the future. I’ll let you all find out where it’s going.

This will not break you. This will not break you.

Well. Yes. It just may, but it is so worth the pain.

Deep, eloquently written, quirky as heck (I mean, wow, these characters are kind of out there, but so dynamic. ALIVE). While at first I was ping-ponging with them (maybe even against them in the very beginning because of a few… “eccentricities” or bold, self-confident… “inclinations”), I eventually found the rhythm and I matched mine to theirs. Like heartbeats. I was in sync with who they were, and I felt every moment thereafter. I would give anything to truly know them. To be in that family. And not everyone was eccentric. Some just felt… like… me. Or maybe I felt just like them? But either way, I truly lived in this book for an entire reading session, and I miss them all terribly right now.

And I’m hoping the author has plans for more, because I believe there is so much more to know. To grow with. To love with. To ache for.

5 stars!!

P.S. Thank you to the publisher for sending a review copy my way. And a *giggle* to the author for that little surprise. I laughed out loud, and couldn’t believe my eyes,  and after backtracking and reading again, I realized that …. apparently, in the “book-world” I experimented a little in college. LOL!!!! Well. A girl’s gotta “live” somewhere, right? But that stays between us!!! (thanks for the opportunity, Jessica!).

Now… *skip this little piece of personal introspection right below* if you’re one who TRULY doesn’t want to know anymore about the story. Its not that it’s a spoiler per se, but if you’re like me and like having no real clue, skip this one last line below, and go in “blinder”. It’ll be even more fun!

But I just needed to say…

P.P.S.  Just know that even when you insist to yourself that you don’t believe in “fate”, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. And I dunno? If you ask me, there’s nothing better than knowing that fate has your back, no matter what. 😉