Monday, May 6, 2019

Book Review: We Were Beautiful

I know today is normally a Weight Loss Challenge post, but I'm going to do that tomorrow. It'll be a weigh in day and if I can get my crap together I'll try to vlog. We'll see. But in the meantime I have a book review and according to Goodreads I'm still like 10 books behind and I'm trying SO HARD to catch up.

We Were Beautiful - Heather Hepler

It's been a year since fifteen-year-old Mia Hopkins was in the car crash that killed her older sister and left her terribly scarred. The doctors tell her she was lucky to survive. Her therapist says it will take time to heal. The police reports claim there were trace amounts of alcohol in her bloodstream. But no matter how much she tries to reconstruct the events of that fateful night, Mia's memory is spotty at best. She's left with accusations, rumors, and guilt so powerful it could consume her.

As the rest of Mia's family struggles with their own grief, Mia is sent to New York City to spend the summer with a grandmother she's never met. All Mia wants to do is hide from the world, but instead she's stuck with a summer job in the bustling kitchens of the cafe down the street. There she meets Fig--blue-haired, friendly, and vivacious--who takes Mia under her wing. As Mia gets to know Fig and her friends--including Cooper, the artistic boy who is always on Mia's mind--she realizes that she's not the only one with a painful past.

Over the summer, Mia begins to learn that redemption isn't as impossible as she once thought, but her scars inside run deep and aren't nearly so simple to heal ... especially when Mia finally pieces together her memories of the night Rachel died. 


I first heard of this book from the TLC Book Tours website and I read all of the reviews and there were so many that just raved about this book so I had to get it and I wasn't disappointed.

The story revolves mostly around Mia, who is scarred pretty severely on her face and she's completely self conscious about and rightfully so, it's glaring and the first thing you see when you look at her. Her mother abandoned the family after the car crash that changed everything and her father hasn't been the same since. Her father sends her to New York City for the summer to her maternal grandmother and it doesn't seem like they are going to really hit it off since Grandma is pretty brusque and no nonsense. Mia gets a job working at a cafe down the street where she meets her new best friend Fig, and all of Fig's boisterous family. But Fig forces Mia out of her shell one outing at a time and introduces her to a new group of friends and soon she finds a friend in Cooper, a boy who also has scars in the open and together the learn how to live beyond those defining moments in their lives.

Overall? A solid 4 for me. I really liked it, it was hard to put down, and maybe because I'm a mom to a 13 year old, I just really liked Mia. I will say that while we do find out what happened around the car crash, I kind of wanted more. I also really wanted to know what that last photo on Mia's camera was because I'm nosy. I like how the relationship between Mia and her father ends up, how the Grandma comes off more compassionate, and how Mia comes away with friends. It's just a really good story, it's really a perfect summer read. It's heartwarming for adults, but teens (who it's intended for) are going to enjoy the story as well.

   

1 comment:

Isabelle (the Book Dutchesses) said...

I really enjoyed this book! Definitely a great summer read. I agree with wanting just a little more surrounding the accident.