Chasing Spring

***ARC received in exchange for an honest review - Sanne / Scandalous Book Blog***

It's been a while since I have read a book with a young couple like this. Very refreshing to read a book without the constant sexy time where you can just enjoy the bare bones of the story.

Lilah and Chase are best friends that both have had a complicated childhood and when their mothers cause for them to be separated, a great friendship will be broken up.

That is until about a year later when Lilah has to come back into town and Chase moves into her house.

Limits will be tested and love will be put on the line. When all is said and done will these two end up where they belong? I'm betting on them! ;-)

A wonderful coming of age drama romance. It took me a while to get into this book, but it was worth it in the end. I adored Chase from the get go, he was a true heart throb and such a lovely main character. I struggled understanding Lilah's decisions, which I suppose is as it should be until all the facts were out there. The chemistry between the two could have been so much 'more'. I really felt for both characters, they both had a past that was far from perfect and Lilah didn't cope well. Having never been through anything like that I must say I don't know how I'd handle it. Can't judge a person until you've walked a day in their shoes. Chase definitely made the book for me.

“My family’s secrets had been plucked, pressed, preserved, and put on display” (ARC).

This is a deceptively cute, carefree cover. Very, very deceptive. *eyes cover* It’s all pretty and flowery and nice. I mean, the book is gorgeous (I highlighted at least one sentence in every chapter) but goodness, it was sad. But it was also happy and hopeful. And sad. Lilah runs to her Aunt’s house in Austin after her life unravels when secrets are exposed in her tiny hometown of Blackwater, Texas. In the beginning of the novel, we’re told that her Aunt has to take a job overseas. Lilah moves back to the place where she’s spent two years trying to escape. And the person she’s trying to escape: Chase. This boy is sugary sweet, a tad bit annoying, but so completely in love with Lilah.

The reader doesn’t get the whole story at first. We get bits and pieces to ignite our curiosity, and as we read on the story becomes one of unbreakable friendship forged with a bond deeper than family, the dissolving of sanity, and the hope that things will get better molded with the marrow-deep fear that it never will. And, holy cheese and crackers, is it beautiful and heartbreaking and swoony and so, so sad. It’s so gloomy.

I downloaded the ARC while I was at school. This was my first mistake. I swear I had every intention of doing some homework last night. I really, really did. I was going to do biology and English and history. I was going to work on my extended essay. And I was going to update my IB CAS hours. But somehow (how did it happen, really?) I ended up opening my Kindle app on my phone, walking up to a chair in the game room, and just sat there. And finished the entire book. AND I REGRET NOTHING.

Lilah (whose name I pronounce LEE-LUH half of the time and LIE-LUH the other half) is broken. She doesn’t need someone to fix her. She’s obsessed with secrets. She’s falling into her mother’s patters to understand the women she was. And she is so not over Chase. He’s the boy she left behind, and whose searching for the girl she used to be—somewhere underneath all the black hair dye, stay the hell away attitude, and desperate attempt to get away from Blackwater. One thing she didn’t leave? He adoration for using the dirt to make something gorgeous bloom. She’s chasing spring.

Both of these main characters are so well fleshed out. I loved how the POV of the story flip-flopped between the two of them. Then there were the flashbacks which let the reader see how everything got started. Basically, I love the way the story is told. I love the words that were used. I love that every emotion- the good and the bad and the ugly- that was felt in CHASING SPRING was one that I could feel as well. And sometimes it was really, really good. Other times it was a special brand of fury.

The kind that sets the world on fire.

Lordy, this book was lovely. Betrayal, loss of hope, metamorphosis. Gorgeous cover. After my love for R.S. Grey’s books SCORING WILDER, this one certainly did not disappoint.

A fast-paced and quick read! While cleaner (sexually) than R. S. Grey's other books it is definitely not clean. Grey deals with the issues of alcoholism, drug-addiction, and grief and blame very well and vividly through a teenager/young adults perspective. The "what-ifs" and "if onlys" are heart-breaking and can hit close to home for some readers, especially the children and family of addicts. Grey does well with the shame and other issues involved with addicted parents. A solid read but very quick. I got through it in a few hours.

This was a very interesting read. I liked the slow unravel of secrets and seeing childhood friends try to come together. I found Chase's persistence and Lilah's resistance to be a nice baseline. It made the relationship feel genuine. I thought the dialogue and narration flowed well. The characters and their attraction came to life for me, and their romance never felt forced or rushed. This is quite a different book than what I've come to expect from RS Grey, but it really showcased a different side to her writing that I appreciated seeing.

Quick read. Great story with just the right amount of angst, tension and drama. I loved the characters of Chase and Lilah, and was glad of the happy ending! I needed them to end up together. That said, my only other wish for this book would be for more detail of their dating time together and if not a sequel, then an epilogue so that we can see that they have a wonderful, happy, loving future, together! No epilogue is the ONLY reason I gave this 4 stars.

4.5 Stars!
Lilah Calloway is going back to Blackwater, Texas. She's been living with her aunt in Austin for the last year and a half, but her aunt has to go away and there's no way that Lilah's dad will let her finish her senior year in high school living by herself. She left town when her mother died and she wants no parts of going back. Blackwater is full of deception and hypocrites and liars.

Blackwater, Texas-Population: small.

As if things couldn't get worse, her father, who coaches the high school baseball team, tells her that Chase Matthews is going to be living with them for awhile. His father's drinking problem is out of control and since his mother died, there is no alternative but to let him stay with them. How much worse can it get for Lilah-she and Chase were best friends until both their worlds were rocked by tragedy. They haven't even spoken and now they are supposed to live in the same house?

"He's going to be staying with us for the next few months-"
"WHAT?"
"I know that it's going to be an adjustment, but it's just for a little while---'til graduation at the latest."

Chase has spent the last year and a half without Lilah. Not by his choice, but by hers. He's casually dated Kimberly, more of a friends who became more for a while but it's not really going anywhere. He's uncomfortable staying with the Calloways, but he's going away to college after he graduates anyway. He tries his best to get Lilah to talk to him but that's not going so well.

I'd been done the first day she'd started to ignore me, but she'd moved off to Austin and left a gulf between us. Now that she was back, I wondered if her silence would last.

Lilah has a need to know the town's secrets. Everyone has them. Everyone in that small town knows hers. It's only fair that she finds out what they are covering up, and let's face it; they are all living a lie.

It wasn't fair that everyone knew my secrets but I didn't know theirs. The scales were tipped in their favor, and since I couldn't erase the secrets on my side, it was time to start weighing down theirs.

Lilah is trying to find her way. She's tried hanging with the stoners; Ashley and Trent may not be the best influences but it gives her an outlet to let off steam. Chase is the chosen one at school-he hangs with the jocks, he's smart and he's surrounded by the Diamond Girls. A group of the beautiful girls that are self appointed cheerleaders for the baseball team. Lilah doesn't really fit in anywhere.

But Chase had said it best: this was our story and happy endings are few and far between. We'd forever be moving in opposite directions-after all, he was the golden boy, and I was the lost girl.

No matter how hard they want to-there is an ugly truth that separates Chase and Lilah. A connection of the worst kind and neither one is sure that they can ever move past it. Chase wants to move on and not let his father's descent into the bottle and his mother's death define his future. But Lila isn't there yet.

I hated how stubbornly I loved Lilah. She could tear me in two and I'd still come back. A dark part of me wanted to hate her. It'd be so much easier if I thought she was as evil as she thought she was, but I knew the secret she tried so hard to hide: she was scared shitless, scared of letting anything happen between us, scared of looking past everyone's flaws to get to the meat of life.

Chasing Spring is a beautiful story so different from Ms. Grey's other works. It's a young adult story with serious undertones about substance abuse and betrayal and death. But there are many light hearted moments; particularly Lilah's memories of gardening with her mother, long before her mother gave in to her demons. It's about forgiveness-the kind that lets you forgive others but mostly yourself. Most of all it's about change-people can change if they want to; if they allow themselves to move forward and to learn from both their mistakes and the mistakes of those they love.

I gardened because I was obsessed with the notion of finding beauty in the dirt. Dirt is chaos, gritty, full of bugs and decay, but from that dirt comes such immense beauty.

The premise could be interesting but it jumped too much to be consistent. There isn't much explanation of their relationship before Lilah moved or even why exactly she moved. I mean I assume it is because of her mom but there isn't much else. Why was it lilacs fault her mom did what she did? Judiciously think Chase hated her?

Title: Chasing Spring
Author: R.S. Grey
Genre: Contemporary Romance/YA
My Rating: 5 Golden Boy & Lost Girl Stars!

I just finished Chasing Spring and honestly I can't begin to describe how deeply I am in love with this book. What a breathtaking story....

"I'd been chasing spring ever since my mom had left me when I was seven."

This is so much more than just a friends to lovers romance. Chasing Spring is one of those books that you just can't stop reading and feel a personal connection to. I laughed, cried and celebrated with Chase & Lilah.

"Chase was my childhood, my memories, and my happiness-things I worried I'd never get back."

As you read this story, and the truths come into the light over what separated Lilah & Chase for so long, it's so dark and heartbreaking that it just made me hurt. It made me think about all the real life families who are suffering the same tragedies. It has been quite some time since I've read a book that just made me want to hug the main characters and tell them that they're worth the help, worth a fresh start. I saw so much of my own stubbornness & anguish in Lilah, that I was pulled to her story immediately. Lilah was so real. A genuine 17-year old facing grief and secrets that keep her hidden away. A girl yearning to be close to Chase, her best friend since birth, but somehow at a loss for how to mend whats been shattered. A young woman in search of a way to move into spring, move out from underneath the dirt that kept her buried for so long.

"Out of such terrible things, the muck and the mud, Lilah had come to be. Life had done its best to stomp her back into dust, but I wouldn't let it happen."

Chase Matthews...the "golden boy"...the only one who wouldn't let Lilah hide away forever. He won't give up his best friend, the friend he'd fallen so hopelessly in love with over the years. In fact, Chase actually said, "She could tear me in two and I'd still come back.". Chase would fight for Lilah, for what they could have once she could move beyond their past and believe in new beginnings.

"I could find the lost girl."

Lilah couldn't see how she'd ever be good enough for Chase. And she certainly didn't think she deserved his love after what happened in their past, though she so desperately needed him. But would she let him in?

"he was the golden boy, and I was the lost girl."

I will always hold Chasing Spring close to my heart. It's a story that left me with deep emotions and feelings that can't be ignored. When I started reading this I already knew by the end of the first chapter that this was going to be a book that I'd fall in love with. And I did. I absolutely, and with all sincerity, love Chase & Lilah's story. Every high and every low was the perfect journey to their happily ever after. Or in their case, their happy beginning.

"It was a dangerous image: Chase dipping into the darkness to help pull me to the light."

So, if you're wondering if you should pick up and give it a try, I can only say: YESSSSS. It's worth the read. And then a reread. A perfect 5 stars! This was my first R.S. Grey book and I'm so freaking excited to read more from her! Please read this book, it'll move your heart and draw out your tears. Such a marvelous tale that I'm glad to have read.

"I would always love Lilah."

Sweet story of two teenagers with very troubled and intertwined childhoods. The story felt very real and I appreciated that the characters were well fleshed out, not the stereotypes often found in YA stories. The characters were well developed and believable and I found myself invested in their outcome. Though often heavy, this one was a very good read.

Really got attached to the characters and wanted the story to go on. I enjoyed the story, it had a nice arc and probably ended where it should have, I just didn't want to let go. Great rainy afternoon escape!

This is an emotional book that details the devastating effects that the past and addiction can have on a family in the future. Two young people try to reconnect and battle their demons while hoping for a future.

Small town love with a small town feel. Chase and Lily were meant to be from the beginning so there was nothing new to look forward to, nothing different to expect. Met my expectations and nothing more.

I love how descriptive this book is. It painted a beautiful picture of love in different ways. The only negative I found in this book was the annoyance I felt towards Lilah at times. Although, that also paints a realistic teenage pov.

CHASING SPRING kept me interested, I couldn't put it down, I wanted to know what happened. I didn't like the ending, it left me wanting more, when I finished I asked that's it? but overall the book was really good.

I was uninterested in this book, but I stuck through it because I've loved all of her other books; however, I barely finished the book. It was confusing and I was invested in it the way I usually am with her other books.

Reading Lilah and Chase's story was very emotional and heartbreaking at times, but the path of healing they took was amazing. Chase was so strong in attempting to help Lilah heal and in turn himself. The secondary characters made this story so much richer. I will say that the ending was a tad bit abrupt but not enough to change my feelings about this book!!