My Thoughts: LEFT DROWNING by Jessica Park

LEFT DROWNING
by Jessica Park
Published by Skyscape 
Publication Date July 16, 2013
Source: Purchased
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(from Goodreads)
What does it take to rise from life’s depths, swim against the current, and breathe?

Weighted down by the loss of her parents, Blythe McGuire struggles to keep her head above water as she trudges through her last year at Matthews College. Then a chance meeting sends Blythe crashing into something she doesn’t expect—an undeniable attraction to a dark-haired senior named Chris Shepherd, whose past may be even more complicated than her own. As their relationship deepens, Chris pulls Blythe out of the stupor she’s been in since the night a fire took half her family. She begins to heal, and even, haltingly, to love this guy who helps her find new paths to pleasure and self-discovery. But as Blythe moves into calmer waters, she realizes Chris is the one still strangled by his family’s traumatic history. As dark currents threaten to pull him under, Blythe may be the only person who can keep him from drowning.

This book is intended for mature audiences due to strong language and sexual content.


My Thoughts

Left Drowning is:

• My favorite book by Jessica Park.
• One of my favorite books EVER.
• The book I reread 3 times last year.
• The book that has makes me a complete emotional mess EVERY TIME I read it.

It's the book that I was scared to read and let it sit on my shelf for far too many months (I recommended it to a friend and she read it before I did); and it is the book that I always want to read "right now" but I have to hold off because of the emotional toll it takes on me.

It's a book that I won't fully share what it means to me because it has affected me so deeply and the why is something that I want to keep to myself.

It's the book that I can't "review" but I want to tell people about it.

In April of 2013, I named Left Drowning my "Waiting on Wednesday" title because of my adoration of her books that I'd read previously:

"I have fallen in love with Jessica Park's humor and writing style with her novel Flat-Out Love and her novella Flat-Out Matt.  Now I want to read everything she writes . . . I am even more excited about her upcoming Left Drowning. It is just the kind of book that I like to read and if she puts as much care in developing her characters and their story as she did with Julie and Matt in Flat-Out Love then it is sure to be a hit."

Left Drowning is not Flat-Out Love. Blythe is not like Julie. Chris is not like Matt. If readers are looking for a story with the same quirk and humor like Flat-Out Love, they aren't going to find it in Left Drowning. The humor is there. The heart is there. The humanity is there. But it's different. It's more. That's the only way I can think to describe it, just More.

Left Drowning is a book that I will hold close to my heart. Forever.

 

Disclaimer:  I purchased a copy of this title for my personal library and am providing my honest review.  I was not compensated in any way for providing this review. Thoughts and opinions are my own.