I've lived this book & I hope if anyone currently living this book is reading it, they find the courage to get out. It's not easy, but you can do it!!

This is going to be a hard book for me to review. Right off the bat, I want to tell you I LOVED THIS BOOK. I've never read a YA book about a controlling, possessive boyfriend (portrayed in a negative way) who wasn't physically violent. And holy shit-- this one portrayed that perfectly.

Gavin starts showing Grace attention and she can't believe her luck. Here's this guy, who she's crushed on forever, and is totally out of her league, treating her like she's a princess. He's making her feel so loved and needed-- and basically giving her everything she doesn't get from her home life. She feels safe and important and cared about.

Then Gavin begins to get too attached. He wants to be with her all the time, wants to know where she is and who she's with. He wants to institute "rules" on what they can do and who they can hang out with. She starts seeing that maybe Gavin isn't Mr. Perfect. But by then it's too late. By then Grace can't imagine her life without Gavin, and he's definitely not going to let her go.

I kind of felt like Ms. Demetrios was following me around in the early 2000's-- because it was around that time that I had my own Gavin. He wasn't a rockstar, but he was like Gavin in every other way. He never hit me, but he may as well have. I still have the emotional scars and will snap if I perceive anyone trying to keep tabs on me. I think a relationship like that stays with you for life.

I hope this gets in the hands of every girl/boy who has or had a Gavin. I don't think I've ever read a book to so accurately depict what someone who is controlling is like. And Grace didn't have family to help her, so if she could get out-- I think it will give hope to so many young people.

The only thing that I didn't exactly love was that there was an escalation of the abuse that crossed the line into something more physical-- and I was kind of hoping this book would just stay in the mental abuse category. It almost felt like it was saying that she couldn't leave until something REALLY bad happened. And I know that's not what the message was, but I wish it didn't mix that in there to muddy the waters.

OVERALL: Thank you Heather Demetrios!! Thank you for writing a book about the guys like Gavin and relationships that are hard to get out of. I think this book should be in every middle school and high school. I feel like every teen/young adult should read it.

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How fucked up is it that so many of us can relate to this. My 'bad romance' was 15 years ago and I'm 'over it' and yet still fucked up in fundamental ways because of it. ( )

This is one of those books that left me all kinds of twisted. It was lyrical and life changing at times, but overall the concept just drove me crazy. It's so all over the place and yes, I get that that's the idea... it was just too much. I needed more progression and less of the same stuff over and over again.

I really don't have much to say other then if you can get past the second person pov, and appreciate the drama theme... You will be entertained. If not, I'd pass. The only redeeming part for me was the fact that the Author's writing reached my soul at times. She had a way of wrapping words together to form beautiful, messy sentences that really hit home. ( )

Grace comes from a broken home with an abusive step-dad and mom to an equally broken relationship with an abusive and manipulative boyfriend named Gavin. This book is her letter to Gavin after she ends the relationship describing to him everything he put her through. This is a heartbreaking story but one that should be encouraging for anyone who may be in this situation to show them that they can get out of it. ( )