High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever. But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are 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. (From Goodreads)
I honestly don't know how to write about anything Jennifer Echols writes without turning into a blushing, gushing crazy person. Let's add crushing to that "...ing" list of descriptors. Because I don't think Echols has written a boy that I wouldn't fall head over heels for if he were actually a real person (and I were about 6 years younger...gah I feel like a creep writing that, but oh well). Such a Rush comes in just below Going Too Far on my list of Echols books - which basically means I want to run around with a Such a Rush flag (or make a Such a Rush banner for Leah and Grayson to fly around over my town) and jump up and down like, again, a crazy person.
So, I guess I'll actually talk about the book now. I don't know how Jennifer Echols manages to write characters who are nothing like me, have lives that are nothing like mine, are put in situations I've never been in and I STILL feel like she's written a book ABOUT me. It's crazy. I can't even put my finger on what it was about Leah that I connected to so well, but she's just one of those characters that I feel like I could tell her my issues and she'd understand me. You know? Actually, I do know why I connected with Leah. She flies because she likes the idea that if she really wanted to she could just fly away. As the anywhere but here girl, I totally understand this feeling. If I wasn't so afraid of heights, I'd love to learn to fly just to feel like I could fly off on a whim.
And then there's Grayson. Who once again demonstrates Echols's talent in creating characters who aren't perfect but are perfect for each other. Leah is a little crazy. Grayson is a little crazy. Put them with the wrong people and you have something dangerous and explosive (in a bad way). But when you put Leah and Grayson together, you get a lot of blushing and swooning. Not gonna lie, I wanted to smack him a few times, but he redeems himself so well. I love the way he fights for his family, he fights to show people he can be more than they expect of him, and even if he doesn't always like to show it - he has a huge heart.
The flying thing was just wonderful. It made this book unique in a sea of contemporaries - so even if you're not a rabid Echols fan (which, if you aren't, I seriously hope it's just because you haven't read something she's written yet) it's a book that will draw you in. The setting is so vivid - I've never spent time in the types of planes these characters fly, or hanging out in a plane hangar, but I felt like I grew up with these things the same way Leah did. I can imagine what it feels like to fly a plane now. It's such an awesome thing to read these things and get the sensation that you're living it.
Just read this book. It's a summer story. It's a love story. It's a break away from what people expect of you kind of story. It gives you the rush that the title promises. I can't think about it and not grin. And sigh. Oh, this book. I just freaking love it so much.
Thus ends this gush fest. There will probably be more to come...
