CRASH HERE.

Why oh why do I do this to myself each and every time? What you ask, well read the drama filled angsty emotional as hell books. I swear I just like the torture the YA brings to the table. Maybe one day I will learn my lesson…..wait if I must be honest probably not. I love this type of read WAY TOO MUCH! How can you not love the read that makes your heart pound, your anxiety set in, and manages to break and fix you all at the same time?

Nicole Williams hit another Grand Slam, right out of the park! I was not even a quarter of the way through Clash when I started getting that antsy feeling. My anxiety was starting to make an appearance and I had to hound my friend for some info. Thankfully, she did not tell me much of anything so I was able to experience the whole damn ride on the edge of my seat; I was not able to flip those pages fast enough.

“Jude was a roller coaster-I was a roller coaster. Together we created that super-duper-looper thing. It was scary, standing on the ground and looking up at it, but if that’s the ride I had to take to be with Jude, I’d be the first in line.”

Jude, damn that boy at 20 melts my heart with his love, his temper, his possessiveness, and his ability to say the most heat felt things. Luce on the other hand this round made me want to shake her and tell her she needs to wake the hell up. I missed the quirky Luce, this jealous girl was worse than the one in the first book. At least there we saw a backbone and some sass. Here she pushed and pushed and it made me not like her so well for part of the book. There were even parts I HATED her. Everything she did was so contradictory. Stay go, stay go….ugh! Seriously, Luce! God girl I really really wanted to slap you around like you did to Adriana while screaming this is for Jude!!

“And that was my undoing. The boy who made mothers cross the streets with their children when they saw him walking down the sidewalk; the boy who didn’t have anyone else; the boy I loved, begging me as he only knew how to stay with him.”

And with this quote, I am screaming at the top of my lungs, AMEN SISTA!! Finally, you got it. The thing is the tornado you create is only dangerous to you Luce, only you. Everyone else saw the love Jude had for you and we all felt the intensity. So much heat, so much damn tension. Girl, get your crap together and don’t screw it up!

“ I need a break from the tornado you and I create everywhere we go.”

After book 1, I thought their relationship couldn’t go off course any worse than it did in Crash. Man I couldn’t have been more wrong. Jude fought his feelings for Luce the first time around, this time it lay all in Lucy’s hands. Jude knew with every fiber in his bones that he was madly deeply in love with her. This book shredded me, left me heartbroken and an emotional wreck devouring the pages looking for some form of happily ever after. I ached for Jude, I swear if Lucy had stood in front of my car I might have forgotten which one was the brake and which one was the gas. Now I know that isn’t the nicest thing to say, but seriously after you read that book try and tell me the thought doesn’t pass through your mind. Just when I thought she finally had her crap together, she would screw up MAJORILY AGAIN. There was a point I seriously hated her, but by the end I grew to a minor dislike. All I’m going to say is she better make up for it in Crush, and by the way, that title freaks me out a little!

“The name’s Jude Ryder. And I didn’t used to do girlfriends, flowers, or dates. And then I met you, and that didn’t work for you. So I changed for you. And you changed for me too.”

Kim's Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars

"Baby...your words never fail to make me want to swoon and squirm at the same time."

I loved Jude and Lucy in Crash and was excited to see them go off to college. Jude is now a star QB for Syracuse and Lucy is studying Ballet at Julliard. So they are trying to keep their romance together during separations and dealing with backstabbing spirit sisters, insecurities, miscommunication, and bouts of anger. We are introduced to his new football team, her room mate India, and a horrible manipulative back stabbing Spirit Sister that wants Jude for herself. I hated this girl from the first time they said her name...Adriana Vix. Just sounds like someone that is going to cause trouble!

Nothing was easy about our relationship. Well, nothing but falling hard for each other. Everything else was like trying to swim against a current. You never quite felt like you were making much headway, but the journey made up for the lack of real estate.

In the first book, I felt that Jude was pushing away more than Lucy. In this book, Lucy drove me crazy. She kept pushing away and leaving. Sure she had some good reasons, but Jude kept telling her she needed to trust him. And she did not really trust him fully and certainly never trusted him not to hurt her. Her insecurities and actions kept pushing them apart. My heart just wanted to break for Jude for most of the book. Sure he has anger issues, he's possessive, he can be a little clueless, but he was devoted to Lucy. He tried to prove it to her over and over. But she could not truly commit to them until she figured out some things about herself. So this book was more about Lucy coming to terms with her own issues. 

I realized then it wasn't Jude that was the problem. He wasn't the reason our relationship was nothing short of explosive. It was me. It was the person I became with Jude beside me.

There was a theme of Jude and Lucy's relationship being a rollercoaster. And I felt that way about this book! My emotions were all over the place. I was holding my breath and gripping my kindle. 

"but your man's a passionate person. Just like you are. If the two of you are together, you've got to accept the roller coaster as a way of life. You wouldn't want him to change who he is anymore than he'd want you to change. The drastic ups and downs will be what spending your life with Jude will be like. That's a fact. You have to ask yourself if it's worth it."

"I just wish I could trade in the roller coaster for a carousel. Able to anticipate what was around every corner, making the journey with less dramatic ups and downs."

"...but that's not the hand you were dealt baby. Jude was the hand you were dealt and that man is no carousel, Lucy."

Jude was a roller coaster--I was a roller coaster. Together we created that super-super-looper thing. It was scary, standing on the ground and looking up at it, but if that's the ride I had to take to be with Jude, I'd be first in line.

"The problem is the roller coaster...We're either on top of the world or knocking on hell's door. There's no inbetween. No breathing room, just constant up and down at one hundred miles per hours."

This book alternately made me happy, mad, made my heart hurt, and brought a few tears to my eyes. I was so totally invested in their relationship working out and every time they had a falling out, it broke my heart a little too. But despite it all, their love for each other shines through. 

"I'll be here when you're ready. No matter how long it takes I'll always be here, Luce. I'm yours...forever."

Jude wasn't just my first love. He was my forever love. But hell if forces of nature Hadn't alligned against me actually being to spend my life with that person.

I loved how her parents evolved in this book and how they actually accepted Jude and supported Lucy. 

"Love is what brings you together, Lucy. But it's blood, sweat, and tears of hard work that keeps you together...Love isn't only love, sweetheart. It's hard work, and trust, and tears, even with a few glimpses of devastation. But at the end of each day if you can still look at the person at your side and can't image anyone else you'd rather have there, the pain and heartache and the ups and downs of love are worth it."

I'd fallen for a broken boy that had manged to fix me somewhere along the way.

I adored the ending of this book and how she brought them full circle and tied in the first book. It made me want to clap and brought a tear to my eye. I cannot wait for CRUSH to see more of Jude and Lucy. Expected release date April 23, 2013.