How I Lost You
Author: Janet Gurtler
Publication Date: April 23, 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Contemporary
Synopsis:
There are a few things Grace Anderson knows for sure. One is that nothing will ever come between her and her best friend, Kya Kessler. They have a pact. Buds Before Studs. Sisters Before Misters. But in the summer before senior year, life throws out challenges they never expected. And suddenly the person who's always been there starts to need the favor returned. Grace and Kya are forced to question how much a best friend can forgive. And the answer is not what they expected.My Thoughts: This is the first time I've read one of Janet Gurtler's books and I have to say that I was very happy with it. I have seen them around a lot and they looked good, I just didn't get a chance to try one until now. I'm glad I read this one because it does deal with a pretty heavy topic, rape, but at the same time, it was a light, quick read. I really liked that about it. Gurtler's writing style really appealed to me and I really liked how she could make me feel about the characters. The character building is great and you really learn to sympathise with them.
The protagonist is Grace, she's a paintballer with ambitions of going pro. She takes a lot of crap from the guys who think that it's not a sport for girls, so she has to be extra tough. She is fine with it though because she has her BFF Kya right there with her, kicking the boys butts. Together they are unstoppable on the field. Kya has a secret that Grace keeps for her, even from their other BFF James. Grace always sticks up for Kya, someone needs to and she just feels bad for her. I felt bad for her in the beginning too. Kya was raped and the guy got off with a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately, I know that's how those types of things work. Most times girls don't even report rapes because you are just going to suffer more than you already are and somehow they feel like it's their fault. So yes, I felt bad for her. However, this happened four years ago and while I know it can take a long time for these traumas to heal, Kya was completely using it as a crutch to get whatever she wanted. She always guilted Grace into doing things for her and Grace's life was suffering for it. So as the book went on, I began to despise Kya. She used guys, James hated her, drunk and just seemed to not care in general about anything. They had a very toxic friendship and I was waiting the whole time for Grace to finally stand up to her.
Despite my growing dislike of Kya, I still really enjoyed this book and the lightish writing style. I was able to read it quite quickly, barely pausing to put it down because I was just waiting for that moment when Grace would finally realise that Kya was bad for her. I also didn't realise that paint ball was a sport that people played professionally, so that was very interesting. I don't know much about it, so I got to learn a bit while reading. I can say that I will definitely be looking to read more by Janet Gurtler, she writes a great book!
*A copy was provided for review from the publisher*
Hi, there! First of all - great review! I probably wouldn't even have considered reading this book, but now that I got a better view on how it is written...mhm, I guess it'll be added to my TBR list :)
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