Review: But I Love Him by Amanda Grace

Summary:

Tonight was so much worse than anything before it.  Tonight he didn't stop after the first slap.

At the beginning of senior year, Ann was a smiling, straight-A student and track star with friends and a future.  Then she met a haunted young man named Connor.  Only she can heal his emotional scars; only he could make her feel so loved - and needed.  Ann can't recall the pivotal moment it all changed, when she surrendered everything to be with him, but by graduation, her life has become a dangerous high wire act.  Just one mistake could trigger Connor's rage, a senseless storm of cruel words and violence damaging everything - and everyone - in its path.

This evocative slideshow of flashbacks reveals a heartbreaking story of love gone terribly wrong.


Review:

But I Love Him is a fast paced story told in reverse order.  That, and the subject matter, is what first got me interested in this novel.  Amanda did a great job writing the novel in reverse order.  Through Ann's flashbacks, we really get to see and feel her heartbreak - and why she cannot just walk away from the relationship.

However, I think that is really one of the only good things about the novel.  Though the storyline seemed developed, I felt the characters were not.  There was so much possibility with the characters of Ann and Connor, but I felt as if they could have just been background characters in their own story.  I felt as if I did not get to know them enough, that there was just so much more that could have been said about them and their story that just... wasn't.

Though I still feel that this is a powerful novel, I also felt as if it was unfinished and a lot was left unsaid at the end of it.  If the characters, and a few of the subplots, would have been more developed, this novel would have so much going for it.

Short Review:

Powerful, but it still needs a little work.

Rating: C.