Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Publish date: 2012
Source: Purchased
Format: ebook
Length: 325 pages
"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." (Goodreads)

I wanted to love this book. The premise sounds amazing--female pilot, twin brothers, what could go wrong? Plus I loved Jennifer Echols's novel, Going Too Far (but not Forget You). I thought I would love Such a Rush, but sadly, I didn't.

I spent the entire book annoyed with everything that Echols piled onto Leah. She lived in a trailer park, had mommy issues, had no money, and just assumed that everyone was judging her because of all that. It seemed like her actions just reinforced the stereotypes that she thought everyone made about her. And I was a bit surprised at some of Molly's friends comments about Leah--do people actually say/think things like that?

Speaking of Molly, she was really confusing. Most of the time, I had no idea if she and Leah actually liked each other. Honestly, I was just not a fan of any of the characters in Such a Rush. Alec was boring and underdeveloped and Grayson's motivation for certain actions made no sense. The characters as a whole just were not up to par for me.

Like I said, I love the idea of this book and just wish it was better executed. I know a lot of people loved it, but it just wasn't the right book for me.