Such a Rush

Such a Rush
Jennifer Echols
325 pages
Released: July 10, 2012
Publisher: MTV Books
Source: Southern ARC Tours
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Leah Jones has moved around from trailer park to trailer park her whole life, but when she's fourteen she decides to take her life into her own hands and lands herself a job at the airplane hangar next door.  She soon procures flying lessons from the owner, Mr. Hall.  When Mr. Hall dies, his two sons are suddenly in charge of the whole operation.  Soon Grayson blackmails Leah into dating his brother, Alec, but won't tell her why it's so important.

The first thing that got me interested in Such a Rush was the plot itself.  How many YA novels have you read that include a teenage pilot... or three?  None!  The setting of the airplane hangar and the plot involving these three teenage pilots were wholly unique to the YA world, which skyrockets this contemporary novel over its counterparts.  Such a Rush does have a few moments of humor, but it's a serious novel taking on a few real life issues and I really appreciated it.  Maybe not too many teens fly planes like Leah and her friends, but the novel still felt realistic to me.

I'm not going to lie, Such a Rush started out as a slow read to me.  While the plot had me interested, it didn't really have me turning the pages.  But things started to get interesting about a third of the way through the novel, when Grayson starts blackmailing Leah into dating his brother, Alec.  I was really interested to know why.  Of course, there were other things that made this book interesting as well; cat-fights, plane crashes, death, to name a few.

The more I read Such a Rush, the more I was impressed with Leah's character.  Leah Jones has had a hard-knock life from the get-go.  Her mother had her when she was only sixteen and they move frequently from one trailer park to the next.  Leah hasn't always made the best choices in life, doing some drugs and having sex when she was only fourteen herself, but the more I got to know Leah the more I learned the truth - she's a great girl with good morals, even if everyone else thinks she's trash.  I really admired her for overcoming her personal adversity and I have no doubt that as Leah continues into adulthood, she's going to continue to be a fantastic person.

Four stars!  Such a Rush started off a little slow to me, but as the book continued on I really became aware of what a great writer Jennifer Echols is and I loved her ability to weave a plot with diverse, complicated characters.  Of course, the wholly unique setting for this YA novel was great, too!  I definitely think you need to check this one out.