Review : Before You by Amber Hart

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Before You (Before & After #1)
Author : Amber Hart
Publication Date : July 29th 2014
Publisher : K-Teen
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

Some say love is deadly. Some say love is beautiful. I say it is both.

Faith Watters spent her junior year traveling the world, studying in exquisite places, before returning to Oviedo High School. From the outside her life is picture-perfect. Captain of the dance team. Popular. Happy. Too bad it’s all a lie.

It will haunt me. It will claim me. It will shatter me. And I don't care.

Eighteen-year-old Diego Alvarez hates his new life in the States, but staying in Cuba is not an option. Covered in tattoos and scars, Diego doesn't stand a chance of fitting in. Nor does he want to. His only concern is staying hidden from his past—a past, which if it were to surface, would cost him everything. Including his life.

At Oviedo High School, it seems that Faith Watters and Diego Alvarez do not belong together. But fate is as tricky as it is lovely. Freedom with no restraint is what they long for. What they get is something different entirely.

Love—it will ruin you and save you, both.
 
Personal Thoughts 

Before You sounded like an intense and romantic story that would satisfy the die-hard YA contemporary romance lover in me. It was definitely both intense and romantic, but it was also unnecessarily dramatic, especially towards the end, drawing out some of the loveliness of the book.

The opposites attract trope has been used on numerous occasions, but it's still a trope that pulls me into books regardless. That's one of the main reasons I picked up Before You and the book used that trope very well. Diego and Faith were absolute opposites when it came to personalities, but they hinged together as a couple incredibly well, bringing out the more open and positive sides to each other. Both Diego and Faith were characters I loved individually as well as when they were a couple. Faith, especially, was easy to connect with. She was the pastor's daughter and had to constantly live up to the expectations of the other people in her town. She labored to be the good girl throughout the book because she was afraid of how her true self could reflect on her father. She didn't want to ruin his reputation in any way, and I have to say I respected her for that. I also felt for her because I knew how difficult it was for her to give off this appearance of someone she didn't really want to be. She wanted to wear skin-showing clothes, but she couldn't. She wanted to lead a different life, but she couldn't because she was constantly in the public eye. The expectations of these other people were crushing her slowly and it was painful and just plain sad watching her have to hide her true self even at school. When she met Diego though, things started to slowly change. He made her want to be open about her individuality. Diego, was originally from Cuba and he went through his own fair share of issues. Mostly dealing with him being part of a gang back home, learning to deal with a new environment and trying to overcome stereotypes surrounding his culture.

I thought Diego and Faith's relationship was overflowing with chemistry. They had a ton of sexual tension together and I loved watching their relationship grow from "hatred" to more. Diego, especially, was a swoon-worthy character and I loved how he constantly flirted with Faith, pushing her buttons. When Faith retaliated, it was hot! While I thought the initial progression of their relationship had a nice pace to it, I will admit that the "L-word" came a little too fast for my liking. It just felt unrealistic and I wasn't a fan. Additionally, I had issues with the book from the 75% mark. I knew going in that this book would be dramatic, but this sweet romance story turned into an overly dramatic and completely improbable story line. In retrospect, it was meant to be serious, but sadly, it only got a few laughs out of me because of how silly and preposterous it all was. I honestly could have done without it. I also could have done without that exceedingly cheesy epilogue. It was just a little too much for me. Regardless of my thoughts on the last few chapters of the book, I really enjoyed Amber Hart's writing abilities. She's definitely talented and if she toned down on the drama, she could write some fantastic stories. I also liked how she focused a lot on friendship. Faith and her best friend, Melissa, had a strong relationship that was built on so much love and respect. I absolutely love it when bonds between women are shown to be tight in books and I very much appreciated it in this book. The author also attempted to show how people of color are often stereotyped and spread a great message with Before You.

Before You wasn't the perfect book. It had some flaws to the story line which could potentially have been avoided to craft a wonderful romance book. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the story overall and I'm excited to read Melissa and Javier, Diego's cousin's, story next! I think this debut author has a ton of promise!

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 3/5

Thank you to NetGalley and K-Teen for the e-ARC of Before You.