Such A Rush by Jennifer Echols

Title: Such A Rush
Author: Jennifer Echols
Pages: 336
Rating: 5 out of 5
From Goodreads:
A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.

Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re determined to keep the banner planes flying.

Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.

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Wow. I fell completely head over heels with this book and all the characters. There were times I wanted to scream and there were times I actually did scream. I cried. I laughed. I fangirled a little too much.

"Love isn’t something you have to deserve.”

Leah has never felt love, except the love she has for flying. She's spent three and a half years working at the airport behind the trailer park she live in with her deadbeat mom. During this time she befriends the owner of the airport and begins flying for him. When he dies suddenly and his twin sons come to take over the business it sets off a downward spiral that Leah might not be able to pull herself out of.

Leah was amazing. I really appreciated her character progression. She felt trapped by what everyone else thought of her. Her passion for flying was great, I could really feel the excitement she was experiencing when she was flying. There were times I wanted her to snap and really stand up for herself, especially to the people around her. When everything finally came to a head I was very happy with where Leah stood.

Grayson was sex on a stick. He's exactly the type of book boy I fall for: brooding, semi-douchey, sarcastic, with an underlying sensitive streak.

Alec was sweet and nice, but I didn't connect with him as much as I did with his twin. I'm thinking that is kind of what the author was going for with the twins though.

Molly is the kind of girl you want to be friends with, even if she is a little bit clueless. I was really happy with the direction her friendship with Leah went.

Overall I felt very connected with the story. Jennifer Echols managed to hook me in the first few pages and I couldn't stop reading. She was very realistic with her use of language for the ages of the characters. It was refreshing to read about tough situations in a realistic way. I am definitely planning on reading more by this author.