A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.
High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.
But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly.
Release Date: July 10, 2012
It is hard to find a good reality based novel now a days since the young adult market is flooded with paranormal stories about witches, vampires, demons, angels, etc…but Echols has written a story about complex characters with so many realistic issues that I became deeply involved in their lives and what could happen to them.
We meet Leah when she is in her early teens and she has already had a terribly uncomfortable life living in different trailer parks across South Carolina, with her intensely irresponsible mother and her plethora of boyfriends. She gets a job at the airport located right next to her trailer park, and then she falls in love with flying.
Skip ahead four years, and Leah is a beautiful, talented, and intelligent eighteen year old that has just acquired her commercial pilot’s license (I can’t even imagine flying a plane at 25, much less 18!). Tragedy strikes, and Leah is thrust into the middle a fight between her former flight instructor’s two gorgeous twin sons who are trying to save the family business.
Let me say that I actually am very familiar with the South Carolina coast where Echols’ novel is set, because I actually vacation down there every summer with my family. In addition, Wilmington (where the twins live) is only about an hour and a half north of Myrtle Beach (which I’m assuming is the real inspiration for Heaven Beach in Such A Rush.) Not only that, but I used to love watching the planes pulling banners fly over the ocean and waiting to see which banners I could convince my parents was a great deal.
Echols’ story and writing ability really put me IN the narrative. I felt like I was experiencing everything alongside Leah. The turmoil with the Hall brothers, Grayson and Alec, isn’t as dire as the synopsis might imply, but it is still very real and very important. Did I mention that the love story is wonderful? Leah is damaged, but she still has her morals and she finds someone who really matches her personality.
This is easily one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a break from paranormal or dystopian novels….or ANY novel to really enjoy then Such A Rush is for you.
5 Bards.
Moving! 