Blurb from Goodreads
A simple girl.
A broken guy.
One horrible incident.
When Lea Amelia landed her feet in San Francisco for her overseas study, her idea of freedom was simple, like eating junk food ten times a day, sitting in front of the TV in her PJs, or going out late with her friends without the need to check in with her mother constantly.
Then she met Andrew Jaya, her brothers’ best friend. A twenty-two-year-old guy whose physical appearance looked like he was crafted straight from God’s heavenly hands, but possessed a past as bleak as if it was drawn by Evil himself. A conflicted guy who wore sadness like nobody’s business beneath his mask, a perfect-looking mask she slowly peeled away.
He was also the guy who hurt her.
Suddenly, everything about her was no longer simple.
Andrew Jaya had convinced himself that not feeling was good for him. He’d been doing it splendidly for almost his entire life. But that was before his best friend’s sister stepped into his life and ruined it. After weeks of knowing Lea, all of those warm and wonderful feelings he’d long ago denied to himself started to reappear. Problem was, the brighter the light, the bigger the shadows that came with it.
His traumatic past refused to let him go.
When the unthinkable happened, the easiest thing to do was to run. But life often proves that the easiest way is usually the hardest.
On the other hand, in some way the words choice that the author used are kind of odd, I think?
There was a tilt at one corner of his mouth, making it shaped like a sexy comma, like he was baiting her to carry on with this conversation. She kept her mouth shut, not trusting herself to not say something stupid which would then turn his comma-smile into a full-blown semicolon wink.
And there are lots of hyperbole sentences from Lea and Andrew when they describe something.
It took all of his effort to do that since his eyelids suddenly weighed tons and he needed cranes to lift them up. For a moment, he couldn’t tell where he was.
They mostly made me cringe and sometime I have to read a couple times to understand the metaphors that are used by the characters. It might be it’s-just-me-not-you case, though.
2) The pace. First part of the story is quite slow, though there are still interesting parts here and there that picked my curiosity. It left me questioning, guessing and can’t wait to know the answer. However it changes in second part. It’s so engaging made me glue to the story. It is better, so much better than first part I thought the author save her energy so that she can pour it all for second part. And let me tell you that second part brings so much emotion in me, mostly the ugly one. I don’t know whether I should mad at the author because she can make me hate Andrew so much while I usually love the hero of the books I read or I should applaud her because she can pull those emotions from me.
But I didn’t like his mood swing. Just like Lea said, I thought he has multiple personalities as it’s so easy for him to change his mood. One minute he’s a happy-sweet-nice guy and then in another minute he can be a jerk. And my dislike for Andrew took to a new level in second part of the story. I was so mad, like I-want-to-throw-my-ereader-and-kill-him-right-away mad, at him. I know he didn’t mean what he did to Lea but he cannot hide it behind his reasons. There is no reason for what he did and I refuse to accept that!
While Lea is a 18 years old naive girl who seek freedom in another country. She’s sheltered for all of her life thus she’s so different from Andrew. I liked that every time she’s around him, she’s surprise him with her witty, shy but confidence personalities. It makes their banter is so interesting to read. And I really liked their first encounter. She can make Andrew speechless and shows how different she is from other girls Andrew used to know.
Just like Andrew, she changes in second part of the story. I was mad at her too, to be honest. Although I wasn’t angry at her as much as I mad at Andrew, I felt like I want to shake her shoulders and tell her to use her head, instead of her heart. I just couldn’t believe how easy she forgives Andrew. I understand her reasons, though. I really do and I admire her for that. She has bigger heart than I do, obviously 😀
All in all I think this is one helluva angst story and the author obviously can write characters I love to hate really well. I still think about it long after I read it. In fact I still mad and hate Andrew and disagree with Lea’s decision. But I also really liked that E. Mellyberry can “force” me to have those feeling, even when it’s the ugly one for the characters. I’ll definitely read the sequel.
2. Andrew’s song
notalostwanderer 