Love Me Never

AHHHHHHH!!!! I love Isis Blake! I want to meet her! I want to be her best friend! Ok, I'll settle down now. What a super fun story - soooo well written. The witty mind of this girl is so fun to encounter. Snarky but loveable. Young girls could learn a lot from her. More! I want more of her story! Sara Wolf is my new favorite. And I am one of those hard to please readers!

4.5 stars -- This is actually the second time I've read this book...I read the original incarnation a few years ago, and when I saw it was being released again with some changes, I decided to try for it on NetGalley and give it another read. Of course since it's been over 2 years since I read it, I honestly didn't notice the changes, b/c I have a terrible memory for the details of a plot. But I can honestly say that I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I read it.

Isis. Was. Everything. She was, quite frankly, HILARIOUS. Seriously, I have never read a character with this much snark, this much sass...her internal thoughts had me in stitches, and the bantering she engaged in -- particularly with Jack -- was just delightful to read. And it wasn't just witty repartee, sometimes Isis would devolve into childish humour too, and I enjoyed the range she showed -- she was more than just one thing. I started highlighting, and soon realized I would be highlighting half the book if I kept that up. And it wasn't just this aspect of Isis that made her such a fascinating heroine for me. Isis was so completely damaged, and the moments where we got to see just how much broke my heart. Being so completely convinced of your own unworthiness...ERGH!! It just hit so close to home sometimes...not to that degree, but empathizing with her was just natural for me. My heart is still aching for her. (and let's not even get started on her home situation)

Jack, on the other hand, was a conundrum. He was so horrible sometimes -- unabashedly so -- and it would be so easy to hate him. But he was given depth. And while it doesn't excuse his behavior, I did end up feeling for him as a character. At the same time, he scared the shit out of me towards the end there. I'm afraid to find out more about what happened back in middle school, and I'm worried for his state of mind. That boy needs help.

While I enjoyed the secondary characters, for me it was Jack and Isis that carried the story. And the uniqueness of the plot. Not that it didn't have a lot of common themes, but it just went about things in such a different way that I feel like it's nothing I've read before.

I can't wait to read the next book. I wish I had gotten it before it was picked up for republishing, b/c it's going to be so hard to wait til November to get my greedy little hands on the next installment.

This book got me interested with the countdown Isis kept on when the last time she fell in love happened & how jaded she was to it at such a young age. But what really kept me hooked was how she went up to Jack Hunter and punched him in the face for being cruel to someone who had showed her true kindness. I thought that this is a character I can get into someone willing to fight for someone else who is being hurt. The antagonism that goes on between Isis & Jack had me staying up until 2am on a work night because I couldn't put the book down. I had to see who would get the upper hand. The way Isis's background is slowly let out through the book along with Jack's & the other characters was very intriguing and basically sucked me in. But that ending the cliffhanger seriously had me almost throw my ipad! I couldn't believe it all that angst & emotion and tears that leaked out when Jack verbally went after Isis in his kitchen & brought to light what happened to her and I'm left with a cliffhanger at 2am in the morning!! I'm now in search of when the release date is for the 2nd book and praying I don't have long to wait or I might end up having a nervous breakdown or following someone around while eating out of a jar of frosting a la Isis Blake.