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My Review:Title: Searching for Beautiful
Author: Nyrae Dawn
Published by: Entangled: Teen
Release Date: March 4, 2014
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 320
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Bookish Resolutions DTTH, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound
My rating:
Blurb:Before, Brynn had a group of best friends, a loving boyfriend, a growing talent for pottery. She had a life. And after…she had none.
When Brynn lost the boyfriend who never loved her, the friends who feel she betrayed their trust, and the new life just beginning to grow inside her, she believes her future is as empty as her body. But then Christian, the boy next door, starts coming around. Playing his guitar and pushing her to create art once more. She meets some new friends at the local community center, plus even gets her dad to look her in the eye again…sort of.
But can Brynn open up her heart to truly find her life’s own beauty, when living for the after means letting go of the before?
3.5 stars — This one was okay. Probably a better book for actual teens instead of us weird adults who like to read YA.
I feel like I just wanted more…it was all just kind of basic? I genuinely don’t know how to describe it other than to say that I just didn’t feel the connection that I wanted to.
I definitely felt emotions, don’t get me wrong. There’s a scene with her Dad near the end that was heartwrenching. But for the things that Brynn was going through, I guess I expected to feel something more. Part of the problem is that Brynn is a good example of a teenager, and that can be frustrating to read as an adult (hence why I think it will resonate better with actual teens). She assumes things about her family and friends that are pretty irrational but I can see how they make sense at the age she is. She’s pretty wrapped up in what’s going on with her, and it’s hard to blame her. And it’s not just her — all the teens in this book behave…well…like teens. Each not having great moments of empathizing with one another and seeing how their own actions were hurtful. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for that much realism.
Yeah. Not sure what else to say. Again, it wasn’t a bad read, just wasn’t what I was looking for either.
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