Crash (Crash #1)
by Nicole Williams
Summary: Southpointe High is the last place Lucy wanted to wind up her senior year of school. Right up until she stumbles into Jude Ryder, a guy whose name has become its own verb, and synonymous with trouble. He's got a rap sheet that runs longer than a senior thesis, has had his name sighed, shouted, and cursed by more women than Lucy dares to ask, and lives at the local boys home where disturbed seems to be the status quo for the residents. Lucy had a stable at best, quirky at worst, upbringing. She lives for wearing the satin down on her ballet shoes, has her sights set on Juilliard, and has been careful to keep trouble out of her life. Up until now. Jude's everything she needs to stay away from if she wants to separate her past from her future. Staying away, she's about to find out, is the only thing she's incapable of.
For Lucy Larson and Jude Ryder, love's about to become the thing that tears them apart.
Source: I purchased a copy of this book for Kindle.
Review:
I loved Crash! I think Lucy might be my favorite YA contemporary romance heroine. I absolutely loved her. Nicole Williams was able to balance the girl who swoons and falls hard for someone with the personality of a girl who knows better than to fall for him, which was perfect. Especially when the love interest is a hopeless bad boy. Had Lucy been any different, I don’t think I would have loved Crash as much as I did.
I was afraid Crash would be too focused on dance, but I bought it anyway and it ended up being great. I’m not a fan of dance books or movies in the same way that I’m not a fan of sports. I don’t care when the characters have hobbies that I don’t like, but a lot of sports and dance stories tend to have this element that I never really “get” because I don’t “get” the hobby, if that makes sense. Crash was not a dance book. There were elements of dancing to it and it was important to Luce, but I didn’t feel left out or unable to relate.
As soon as a finished the first scene of the book, I grinned and knew I would be unable to put it down. Lucy was a tad cocky, totally sweet, and fairly humorous. She was smart, with a good head on her shoulders. Even though she had a tendency to rescue hopeless things, she wasn’t trying to rescue bad boys or pretend they weren’t that bad. She wasn’t spineless and didn’t take anyone’s crap. She fell for Jude at the same time she was telling herself all the reason why he was completely horrible. I loved the honesty of her personality and the duality of two conflicting pulls within her. Had she fallen blindly for Jude and pretended he didn’t have issues, I would’ve been driven nuts.
Jude was a bad boy, but he wasn’t afraid to be soft or admit that he was trouble. He was cocky, but in a different way than typical bad boy personas. And most importantly, even when he was displaying incredible anger issues, he never treated Luce wrong. And she wasn’t afraid to get in his face when he was being ridiculous, so two of them worked well together. I typically hate bad boys, but the women they fall for in stories aren’t typically strong or outspoken enough for me, either. Luce and Jude were wonderful together. Their banter was entertaining and I loved them as a couple. They served as a great example of what happens when two people compliment each other and make each other better.
Crash was an upper YA romance that could have been cliché, but somehow escaped it by being so complex. It was cheesy, but in a good way, what with Lucy and Jude both having names from Beatles songs, but it was cute at the same time. It was dramatic and dealt with issues like death, family, troubled kids, high school reputations, college, etc. Crash also touched me deeply with lessons about what love is, what it means to be defined by how other people view you, how to open your heart, and what trust is all about. It made me smile, laugh, gasp, and it warmed my heart. I cared about Lucy and Jude. Something about the two of them just melted my heart and I couldn’t get enough!
I highly recommend Crash. It’s such a wonderful contemporary romance that was deep in places I wasn’t expecting and funny just when I needed a laugh. It is a must read if you like any kind of YA romance.
Favorite Quotes:
“Another weak, weak attempt at humor, Luce,” he said, winding his fingers through mine. “So weak.” “Forgive me, O hallowed god of comedy.” Nudging me as we walked up the steps, he smiled that impish one that made me feel my heartbeat in my mouth. “Good to see you’re ready to admit I am a god.” “Oh God,” I sighed, shaking my head. “Exactly,” he said, all matter-of-fact. “Just the way you should refer to me.”
“You look at me and see me,” he admitted, the corners of his mouth creeping up. “I don’t remember the last time someone’s looked at me like that.”
The only way to know if Jude Ryder was going to ultimately break my heart was to open it to him. That epiphany should have been more terrifying than it was. Hell or heartbreak, I was in it all the way. All in, as I liked to say, because that was the only way to ensure a relationship had a fighting chance.
My dad had once told me, crimson-red deep in “the talk,” that with sons, all he had to worry about was one penis, but with a daughter, he had to worry about everyone else’s.
Our reputations weren’t who we really were, they were what people told us we were. Some of us fell into that trap, while others fought their entire lives to break free of them.
“Caring for someone is scary, because you both know how it feels to lose someone in the span of a heartbeat. But you can’t let fear dictate your life or else you’ll end up like me. Don’t live life hiding behind your past. Live for the moment. When you find someone you want to spend forever with, you don’t let them go, whether forever turns out to be a day or a year or fifty years.” He rested his other hand over John’s grave. “Don’t let the fear of losing them keep you from loving them.”Crash is currently only $3.79 for Kindle!
