Sunday, March 9, 2014

Review: Searching for Beautiful by Nyrae Dawn


Searching for Beautiful

Author: Nyrae Dawn
Publisher: xyz
Pages: 304 pages
Genre: Young Adult
Release Date: March 4, 2014


Summary:

Before, Brynn had a group of best friends, a loving boyfriend, a growing talent for pottery. She had a life. And after…she had none.

When Brynn lost the boyfriend who never loved her, the friends who feel she betrayed their trust, and the new life just beginning to grow inside her, she believes her future is as empty as her body. But then Christian, the boy next door, starts coming around. Playing his guitar and pushing her to create art once more. She meets some new friends at the local community center, plus even gets her dad to look her in the eye again…sort of.

But can Brynn open up her heart to truly find her life’s own beauty, when living for the after means letting go of the before?



Review:

This is one of the most beautiful books I've read. I mean I think my love for Dawn's writing is kinda a well known fact. I would read anything she writes. But while I like her spunky hot male Characters, she managed to surprise me with Searching for Beautiful with her beautiful and thoughtful prose, but more so, by breaking my heart over and over, then leaving me speechless!

Ever since I finished Searching for Beautiful, I am pondering on how to write this review.  It is definitely the most beautiful book I've read in 2014. And the most beautiful up to date from Dawn. So I feel totally unequipped to convey the beauty of it. So after weeks of thinking, weeks of wondering, I decided to just plunge in and stumble probably very clumsily through this review.
Please forgive me Nyrae, I doubt I will be able to make your writing justice. But that's why your write the book and I read them.

The prose is as I said, in my opinion the most beautiful of any of Dawns books, so far. I love her writing, so I was sure this was not going to be an issue. But boy was I surprised. It's way more poetic, way deeper than many of her previous books - and yeah I know I said it already a million times, more beautiful.

This is a Young Adult book by the way and before Searching for Beautiful I would have told you, I prefer Dawn's New Adult books. Now, well I gotta say, I just love Dawn's books.
Another big difference than most of her other books, this is written solely from Brynn's POV. No male POV- and I adore those, so at the beginning I thought I would miss it. Well I would love to get Christians POV, just cause I do adore Dawn's guy POVs - but it honestly the book would have lost something, it would have distracted from Brynn. While this novel could be type cast as a romance with it's usual dramas and angst this is way more; it's Brynn's journey of learning her own value, her way to healing after messing up big time and her way of getting over loss.
And that's what touched me so deeply. Every woman or girl could be in Brynn's place.

"Before I actually fell for him, I never would have been the girl to fall for lies. I can't help but wonder if all girls think that. If they all think I'm stupid because they don't believe it can happen to them. It can."
The characters are broken but strong, so the kind I like. They also real and true, though at times lost- they are finding their way- and finding each other on that way. They remind us of loyalty, friendship but also that it is ok to mess up- we all do - and that there are always people there to help us when we do.

"Because you're making a hard decision, one that people might not understand, but you're doing it because you know it's best for her. I think my mother wouldhave said that's what being a mom is about. That kind of love. Doing what's right for someone else, even though it will hurt you."


The story line is well paced. It starts at a devastating new point in Brynn's life. A huge life changing occurrence and then it goes on with the story and flash backs. Dawn's skills in her craft are beautifully shown off with this. I think it drove several point home even more. I love the plot until nearly at the end, and while I do like the end. Yes, it was gushy and sweet- I was a tad bit disappointed by the last part of the book, and that's exactly why this isn't a 5Star book for me. While 85% of this, is heartbreaking and thought provoking the last bit felt to rushed, to easily rapped up. And in fact Brynn felt a bit to preachy. It felt too much like a teenage advise book or what would come out of a youth counselors mouth - rather than teenage Brynn. Though I do think the message Dawn was trying to give with it, it really important! And this is one of the best books I read this year.  Just somehow this left me wanting, Brynn's rapid change kinda left me inflated rather than elate me.

I think every library should stock this book! Every parent should buy it for their teenage daughters. It's a must read for all girls out there! Dawn did break my heart simply because this could be each and every girl out there, in some parts I saw myself, in others girls I know.

The most beautiful book of 2014. Heartfelt, heartbreaking and true! A must read.


Rating: 





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