Review | Waiting for the Storm + Giveaway

Waiting for the Storm by Marie Landry
Review by Alyssa
2013
*This book was sent to me as an e-book for review. 
Amazon + Good Reads
4/5 stars

"Seventeen-year-old Charlotte O’Dell knows this summer is going to suck. Her mother just died, her sister hates her, and her dad has completely checked out. Fulfilling her mother’s final wish, the family heads to Angel Island for the summer to stay in a beach house her mother once loved. 

After a year of being shut away taking care of her mother, Charlotte is numb and practically afraid of her own shadow; she hopes going to the island will give her the time and space she needs to begin healing, and an opportunity to bring her family back together. When she meets her mysterious neighbor, Ezra, it doesn’t take long for Charlotte to confess the issues she’s developed. Ezra begins giving Charlotte assignments to get over her fears, and although she accepts his tasks, all she really wants is to be with him. When she’s with Ezra, she’s able to forget the hollow ache in her heart and the fact that her family is falling apart. But Ezra has secrets…

Can Charlotte pull what’s left of her family together, mend her broken heart, and allow herself to fall for Ezra? Or is it all just a storm waiting to happen?"

-Good Reads

I have been having a fantastic summer as far as finding adorable, light hearted summer reads and Waiting for the Storm is no exception! I was sent a copy for review in conjunction with Xpresso Book Tours and once I picked it up, I couldn't stop reading it! 

Waiting for the Storm is the story of Charlotte - a young woman, right out of high school, who just went through the absolute horror of losing her mother to a brain tumor. After her mother's funeral, Charlotte and her family leave to spend two months on the island where her mother spent her childhood summers. Charlotte's father and sister have never been more distant and seem to drift even further apart every day. Alone, Charlotte is left to figure out how to navigate life without her family. As the summer progresses, Charlotte slowly picks the pieces of her life back up and even opens herself to the possibility of falling in love.

This was such a sweet and touching story about learning to live again after the unthinkable happens. Both Charlotte and Ezra, our lead love interest, have secrets to open up about in order to be able to live a somewhat normal life again. I enjoyed that Landry chose to center her characters' struggles around issues that we don't often see in YA - that is, the death of a parent and the debilitating depression of a parent. These issues are very real and I've seen them in my own life... so I was able to sympathize and even forgive the characters because of them. 

And, being a perfect summer read, I can't neglect to mention the romance. Charlotte and Ezra's relationship was sweet and, wait for it - believable! Too often, contemporary YA is filled with intense romance that happens in the blink of an eye... and isn't what you would expect from a pair of seemingly "normal" teenagers. Don't get me wrong, I love a good romance story but it is also nice to step back and read about teenagers who move at an appropriate pace. Ezra was sweet, patient, and adorable - everything that I love in a contemporary YA book boyfriend!

Overall, I loved Waiting for the Storm and am so glad that I signed up for this blog tour. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to read this book. I hope that my review has inspired you to give this book a try... Oh, and there's a giveaway too... so, what's your excuse? =]

-Alyssa

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