* I received a review copy from NetGalley*

I really wanted to give this book 5 stars for just the plot alone, but there was a little too much unbelievable in there for me.

The first thing that really caught my attention was this line " On an island this size, with its whopping 5,000 residents, there are no secrets."
I've always dreamed of living in a very small town, where everyone knows you and you know everyone else. I think that it would be awesome to have that close knit feeling with your community. But more to the reason I can barely give this book 4 stars.
Jake is a senior in high school, he's football player, but not like all the top jocks from other books. He has his friends, and is secretly (to most anyway) in love with Samantha Shay; the smartest girl in the school. Jake and his buddies go to a party after the homecoming game and of course there is drinking; what teen story isn't complete without some? Things take a turn for the worse as Jake and his buddies Rain and Carter get in the car to take Jake to tell Sam that he is in love with her. Alcohol and not paying attention to the road causes the boys to be in an accident. Jake ends up in the hospital after having a t-post(i had to look that one up) go in one side of his neck and out the other. The bad news? His vocal chords were too damaged and they had to be removed. Jake struggles with not being able to talk, and having to communicate by writing everything in a notebook that he carries with him.
After being released to go back to school, Jake's schedule is rearranged and he ends up in more classes with Sam and in an Independent Study class (ASL) with just him and her. The two form a tentative friendship, him still in love with her, and you can see that she is starting to feel something for him. Now here comes the unbelievable part for me. Turns out Sam's mom passed away the summer before she started senior year. No one on the island knew and Sam has been living on her own in a motor home since August. Now, how in the world in a small,remember 5,000, community does Sam get away with this? Sam tells Jake the whole story and throughout the book Jake helps her anyway that he can, sneaking food and other things from his house, working to be able to buy her new clothes.
I love that the book is told from Jake's POV, but there are some things said by Jake that I really don't see an almost 18 year old saying. It's almost like he was written as a girl and then it was changed. The romance between Sam and Jake slowly blossoms and while they do have their ups and downs, things always work out in the end. ( )

It was interesting to read about Jake getting on with his life after the accident.
But there are some things inherently flawed in this book. While I can't really point them out, those things prevented me from liking the book more then I did. ( )

My rating is an average of 2.5 stars due to the editing issues (possessives instead of pluralist; your/you're mixups; "shutter" when it should have been "shudder"), and 3.5 stars for the story.

The story itself had an interesting premise, a teenage boy who loses his ability to speak after an alcohol-related car accident, and how he deals with things after that. There was also the teen romance that was very sweet.

Things got a little preachy at times, especially around the drinking and drugs issue. And I had trouble buying Sam's situation, though the explanation. that was given toward the end of the book kind of made sense.

I recommend this book if you like a nice YA novel and can overlook the editing problems. ( )

I feel so bad giving this a 1.5 stars.... I really wanted to like it. I wanted it to be better than it was. I could see the authors intent and even read it in the back of the book, and I was down for the moral of the story, but it just didn't come across the way I think it was intended, at least, and I had to skip through a lot of scenes that were pretty....well, sensual, if not sexual. Which is not something I look for in any book, let alone a YA book.

But, in depth review to come!

This was a fast read and packed some hard emotional punches. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did and ended up reading it in one sitting. I started reading it, thinking it was a typical teen romance, but it ended up being a much deeper story and was more mature than many of the other YA romances I've read lately. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys off the beaten path romances (without all the constant sunshine and daisies)... ( )