Tracing The Stars

Raw. Honest. No holding back and no sugar coating. Well, except when it comes to Hope's candy addiction. I devoured this book in two days. It made me laugh more than expected and it pulled at my heartstrings even more. There were so many complex facets to this book. From start to finish, the story is pulled along through strong, realistic characters, great dialogue, tough topics of conversation and events that have you unwilling to set the book aside.

Though the romance is, at times, extremely sweet - this is not some simple lovey-dovey coming of age teen-romance story. At the heart of the story is a girl, Hope, who has been abused, is a cutter, and is petrified of anything resembling a committed relationship, because she knows that everything ends eventually. The other half of the heart is a boy, Mason, who has had is life uprooted time and time again by his mother's running from the death and memory of his father. When Hope and Mason's lives collide, they struggle to hold onto one another while they struggle to hold themselves together.

I thought that the story was beautifully written, including the descriptions of Hope's struggles and reasons for cutting, the development of her relationship with Mason, and the complications with Parker. I think this book requires a more mature audience to grasp the depths of how mental illness and life experience can affect a person and lead them to make the decisions they make and see the world as they do.