Review by Hillary: Fault Line by C. Desir

Title: Fault Line
Author: C. Desir
Publishing Company: SimonPulse
Genre: YA—Contemporary Romance
Pages: 226
Released: October 15th 2013

Ben could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl — sarcastic free-spirit, Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want.

But that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani goes to alone.

Now Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame?

Ben wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save the girl he loves.

    

I will never look at lighters the same way ever again. That’s the first thought I had when trying to decide what to write for this review. You’re probably wondering why lighters mean a whole different thing for me now and I wish I could tell you, but I don’t want to be the person to spoil the book for you. Just remember that when you do read this book, there’s a lighter on the cover.

I remember when I read my first and last review for this book. It had convinced me so much I was set on never reading Fault Line. I wish I hadn’t let a review from someone else convince me so fully to give up on a book because I let myself get caught up in someone else’s feelings for this story. I should have realized that everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and feelings for any book and all I should have done was consider those thoughts and feelings. I also didn’t think about the difference in age. I don’t want to throw out names, but the review I read was written from someone a few years younger than me, definitely not in college like me. I’ve read a bunch of stuff that goes way beyond the scope of what’s in this book (thanks to my older sister) and those totally left me scarred.

My mind changed about this book when I found out I had won it in a giveaway I almost didn’t remember entering. At first I was like “Yay!” then I remembered that weeks before I had said “No way!” so I was conflicted about how I should feel about the book for at least a few days. I ended up snapping out of it and told myself that I needed to give it a chance just like any other book I wasn’t sure about before. I’m so glad I listened to that part of myself because there were many things I ended up learning from just this book.

If no one knew this, I’m sorry. If some of you do, you won’t be surprised when I say that this book has things that have to do with rape. That’s mostly the reason for why I learned a lot. If I ever noticed the same signs that I read through this book on someone I know, I would definitely feel comfortable facing that person and asking if something was wrong. I’ve never gone through anything like what the main character named Ben went through with his girlfriend, but I’ve gone through my own emotional trauma when I was depressed years ago that I feel I could try to help someone out.

Ben is the main character in the book starting out his senior year of high school. I thought it was a little funny how he had met his future girlfriend outside a liquor store. Annika or Ani for short is this future girlfriend of his. Her personality totally stumped me from that first meeting between both characters because I’ve never met anyone in real life quite like her. She’s definitely really outspoken and she doesn’t care what others say about her. That is, until things go very wrong. The things Ben had to deal with on his own made me feel so much sympathy for him. Just because of that I was always wishing I could snap some sense into Ani. I started out liking her character so much, but by the end that likeness deflated like a balloon and the only character I could find any hope in was Ben. He was a very strong and committed character. If I could find someone like him in real life, I definitely would not want to mess that up or let that person go. That’s how much his character resonated with me. There were a few other characters, Ben’s best friend Kevin and Ani’s closest friend, Kate, but I couldn’t find anything that made me root for them the way I did for Ben. Maybe Kate was okay, but that’s all I’ve got to say about secondary characters.

Fault Line by C. Desir was a very informative read. I learned a lot and I enjoyed the story to an extent. I thought the pacing was okay, but some more length from beginning to end would have brought up more brownie points for me. There was definitely insta-love in the story and I’m still not sure whether I should feel positive or negative about that. The ending was a relief for me, but even then I felt myself wishing it kept going just to see the resolution happen. The main characters were definitely memorable and the secondary ones were not very memorable. I felt that the only character I really connected with the whole time was Ben and that’s because I felt so bad for him almost the entire book. Ani definitely started out more than okay at the beginning, but once she lost her way and acted the way she did, I just didn’t have any positive things to say about her anymore. What she went through was understandable, but the way she was treating Ben just didn’t sit right with me. Overall, I thought the book was great. Could have used a little more work, but just as it is was okay. I still think readers should give it a chance and read it though. Come up with your own feelings for this book and share them with others who haven’t read the book yet. I’m sure others wouldn’t mind some more insight on this book.

3.4! I liked it a lot. Would recommend.

Special Guest: Book Reviewer:

Hillary

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Hillary currently lives in Fontana, California and sometimes wishes she lived in a rainier place. When out of her world of fiction and music, college homework becomes part of her focus and so does worrying about exams. She still manages to find plenty of time to read YA books and hopes to have a room full of books like some authors are fortunate to have. Hillary is currently working toward earning a degree in English, but in the meantime she is content to help a very kind book blogger known as Beckie from Bittersweet Enchantment. Hillary hopes to become a well-known author one day, but currently writes small stories whenever she has time.

Thank you Hillary! What a excellent review. ;)  What do YOU think of Hillary's thoughts on the book? Have you read Fault Line? Yay or Nah?