By: Ginger Scott

☆☆☆☆

Plot:

A coming-of-age romance inspired by Great Expectations. My life was irrevocably changed the moment I stepped foot inside Elena Alderman’s grand front doors. A lifeless tomb on the edge of Chicago’s Southside, the Alderman home sat in one of the city’s oldest and wealthiest neighborhoods, and Elena Alderman was the queen. She was also mad. Not the kind of madness that’s readily apparent. No, her psychopathy was far more surgical—more…insidious. She was surrounded by beautiful things—most notably her grand piano and her adopted son, Henry. I fell in love with both. My gift blossomed when my fingers touched her black and white keys. But my life began when I became haunted by the boy. Henry Alderman was a handsome blend of arrogance and seduction, and as we grew up together, I found it more and more impossible to separate him from my thoughts. I envied his life. I imagined how my name—Lily—would look with his. I became his closest friend…and more. I gave him my kiss, locked away his secrets, and loved him even when it was hard to. But we were just a game. Elena Alderman made the rules. And when she decided to change them, she broke everything. Almost.

Review:

I feel like the beginning of a review should describe how you overall feel about the book, but I am feeling so many emotions.

Let’s start out with my hate. Now, I don’t hate the writing or anything about what the author did, I hate the characters and their actions. Henry kind of sucks. In the end he was fine, but in certain scenes you just want to slap him. He plays with Lily’s head so much and he wasn’t there for her when they started their freshmen year. He just dropped her from some other girl. Besides that, though, what about his sixteenth birthday… What the hell Henry! If he were an actual person, I would send him to Germany, too. He got into a club, drank, and got high! And he admitted that he did know that he was smoking Molly after lying about how he didn’t know.

Now let’s go back to that Germany thing. Elena is the biggest piece of white trash I have ever seen. And not just for sending her son to Germany and then ruining his life, but for what she did even before he was born. We are told that Henry is her adopted son. Nope. Elena messed around with her sister’s husband and that is when she got pregnant with Henry. Once he was born, she put him up for adoption only to adopt him six years later. Then she tries to keep him in Germany by telling him all this information while he’s there. Excuse me, Elena, but piss off.

Lily tells him first, though, and I can understand his response. He cries on the phone but he swears that he will still call her throughout junior year. After the first few days of school, there is karaoke and Lily starts dancing and singing with Caleb (who only Lily knows is gay) when Henry (who hasn’t been calling for a few days) walks in. Henry is thinking that Lily is cheating with his best friend and this entire time I’m yelling “He’s gay! He’s gay!” And then Caleb says he’s gay, finally.

That’s when we find out that Henry is only there because Elena is sick. Thank God. Her sister, Rebecca, is replacing her kidney and gave the best evil plan I have ever read. Rebecca also found out about Henry, Elena, and her husband’s family tree. She already divorced her husband and the worst part is that she is in her forties and had a baby that she now has to raise by herself. I felt so bad for her and my hatred towards Elena grew even more. How could she do that to her sister!?

I want a rooftop like that so badly now. Lily and Henry were so cute up there and that was there place. It was where they went to. The only thought I had was if Henry took anybody else up there. I bet he took either every girl he had, or just Lily.

I was praying for a squeal, then read the standalones on the back of the book and saw that this was one of them. Still praying, though. I want Lily and Henry to have a baby so badly.

Blogger’s Note:

My computer died right when I was working on this and when I was about to post chapter 5 of “Broken Boarders”. I couldn’t find my charger for my life so I am using my sister’s. I don’t think I have mentioned “Broken Boarders” on my blog yet. I have a book on Wattpad! It is full of plot twist, that I haven’t added yet because I’m only on chapter 5. There are going to be five books in the series and I can’t wait for y’all to read them. Go check it out and by the time this is up, so will chapter 5.

P.S. I have a new theme. Used to be white and is now pink!

Love you all ♡