Title: Somewhere Only We Know
Author: Cheyanne Young
Publisher: 336Love
Date of Publication: June 15, 2014
Genre: YA Romance
Sadie
Bradford’s life is one anxiety attack after another. All she wants is to
escape life's realities for the summer and hang out with her best
friend Aaron. But her grandmother has other plans: Sadie will get a job.
Sadie will do volunteer work. Sadie will make new friends - friends
without brain injuries that make them forget everything...friends that
aren’t Aaron.
While Sadie struggles to survive her anxiety with
all these new changes, she finds an escape when she dreams herself into
the beautiful world of Isola Fiona. It’s a place that cures memory loss
and anxiety. It’s a place where she and Aaron can fall in love.
But after dragging Aaron along with her to her dream
world, things take a turn. Every time they return home, Sadie’s anxiety
is a little better but Aaron’s memory is still gone. And Isola Fiona
may not be much of a dream after all. As Sadie realizes that Isola Fiona
is as real as her anxiety, she rushes to change the course of fate and
make things right, but she may be too late...
My brain tingles with the static of an
oncoming anxiety attack. Where the hell is he?
“Sadie, Sadie, Bo-badie!” It’s Aaron’s
dad, waving at me with a spatula in one hand. And, wow, he’s had a few beers.
“Hi John,” I say, breaking away from
Grandma who’s already hugging and sharing pointless chit chat with Aaron’s aunt
Shelly. “Where’s Aaron?”
He flourishes his hand in one direction
and then the other. “I don’t know darling. He’s somewhere.”
The cousins in the pool laugh at this,
and I realize all three of them are staring at me. And laughing. And probably
just waiting for me to turn around so they can say things about my scraggly
hair or my bony elbows or how I’m totally blushing now because I’m standing all
alone desperate for Aaron. I could strangle Grandma for making me come.
Since everyone is gathered around the
pool, I take refuge in an old plastic chair by an overgrown palm tree next to
the house. It’s far enough away that I can’t hear anyone’s specific
conversations, just the rumble of their laughter as it fills the night air. I
play solitaire on my cell phone to look busy and count the minutes since I’ve
been here. Three.
Where
is he?
The chair next to me creaks, catching me
off guard and sending a shiver of panic through my chest as I look up expecting
to see Aaron. But it isn’t him, it’s his aunt. I swallow the lump in my throat
and stare out at the pool.
“Looking for Aaron?” she asks. I nod. A
warm breeze blows the scent of her hairspray in my direction. By the looks of
her silver and blonde hair beehive on top of her head, she probably used an
entire can.
“He’s in the house,” she says. I can feel her
eyes watching me as I pretend to care about watching the sun setting in the
distance, its golden rays bouncing off the tree branches and pool water. “When
he saw you coming he said he had to change clothes.”
“Oh, okay,” I say, probably sounding as
relieved as I felt. He should be here any second.
“Seems odd that a boy who is just friends
with a girl would run off and make himself look nice when she comes over.”
She’s still staring at me and I’m still totally feigning interest in the
sunset. “You know his condition. Don’t you?”
“Yes, I know he has a small memory
problem.”
“Small?” She snorts. “Aaron’s brain was
severely damaged from high fever when he was two years old. He suffers from a
lot more than a small memory problem. His mind doesn’t understand certain
things.”
“Okay,” I say. I check my phone for the
time. It’s been two more minutes. Come on, Aaron. Jeans and a shirt. Doesn’t
take that long.
“I hope you aren’t filling his head with
things.” Her voice couldn’t possibly get any more condescending as she reaches
out and touches my arm. “Or taking advantage of him and his disorder.”
I can’t help but look at her now. “What
do you mean?” My gentle smile masks my annoyance. It’s the kind of smile that
says I’m as innocent as Mother Teresa.
“He doesn’t understand about sex.” Her
eyes wiggle as she says the dreaded S-word. “That’s what I mean.”
Oh god. My stomach hurts and it’s not
just from the chemical smell of hair products. I don’t want to talk about this.
I don’t want to talk about anything. But I really don’t want to talk about
this.
“You are his only friend, so it would be
easy for you to take advantage of him and I just hope that you aren’t doing
that.”
“No,” I say, my voice barely a whisper as
I recite the line I’ve said so many times over the years. “We are just
friends.”
“I know you’re friends. I also know
you’re influencing him in many ways and I don’t think that’s a very smart thing
to do.”
“Okay?” My fingernails dig into my palms.
I briefly wonder if she’d just disappear if I quit responding and making eye
contact.
“John said you and Aaron talked about him
taking vocational classes for his senior year. He doesn’t need to bother with
that because he can apply for disability when he’s eighteen.”
“I had nothing to do with that,” I say.
“Aaron signed up for welding class all by himself. He doesn’t want to go on
disability. He wants to work.”
“Well he won’t be working. No one will
hire him.” Her hand pats my arm again. Her lips stay locked in a tight smile
even when I flinch at her touch. “Tell me, darling, that you won’t fill his
head with ideas like that. I need to hear you say it.”
“We don’t talk about stuff like that,” I
lie.
“And you don’t talk about sex either? You
don’t let him think you’re his girlfriend?”
“God,
no. No, just, no.” Can’t the woman tell by the deep red in my cheeks that I
don’t talk to him about stuff like that? What is wrong with her? And where the
hell is Aaron?
She nods, her lips pursed together
disapprovingly. I want to drown in the pool. What a bitch. There’s another pill
in my pocket, left over from the last time I wore these shorts. If only I had
something to drink, I could take it. My heart thumps in my chest, pounding hard
inside my rib cage just begging me to grab a drink from the cooler and swallow
it down, but it hasn’t been more than fifteen minutes since I took the last
one. They are meant to be taken once, maybe twice a day.
But I want it, so bad.
I am so happy to have had the chance to read this book! On a book blogger's busy schedule it is hard to find time to read the books in your personal TBR. I was ecstatic to be on this tour!
From start to finish I was enveloped in this story. Fully immersed in Sadie and Aaron's world! The MC, Sadie was a really great character and her counter part Aaron was fabulous and quite swoon worthy as well. I liked the dynamic that the two best friends had and all of the depth that their individual struggles brought to the story.
The plot was fantastic and the very idea of Isola Fiona was amazingly done. The entire cast of characters was a good one and easily goes into my favorite characters file and I even felt a connection to the ones I didn't like. It all seemed so tangible and I easily lost myself to the read. I really liked Jeremy's character, hello, hawt!
The storyline had me all caught up and I went through a ton of emotion in this read. And boy was there some gut punches and all around stunners in there, sheesh! It was very well paced and I easily read it in a day and managed to cook and clean! I am so a fan of Cheyanne young and look forward to reading more. I have no clue if this cast of characters will be revisited but I really hope so.
I recommend this YA read a million times over! It was just great! You don't want to miss this one! It's getting 5 stars because I can't give it 10!
Cheyanne is a
native Texan with a fear of cold weather and a coffee addiction that
probably needs an intervention. She loves books, sarcasm, nail polish
and paid holidays. She lives near the beach with her family, one spoiled
rotten puppy and a cat who is most likely plotting to take over the
world.
She also writes under the pen name Amy Sparling.
This counts towards my #YACC2014
This counts towards my #RPRC2014
2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge
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Great review! Sounds like an amazing book
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