Suzanne Young

"A girl struggles to take care of her younger brother with special needs while confronting her own anger issues"--

All in Pieces

Eliana Ramirez 

“When you don't have much, you hold on to what matters. You hold on with both hands.“

This is the first book I have read by the author and I will say this I was not disappointed! The author has great writing skills and was able to make this book without dragging it out or making it repetitive 

Becky

I read this based on Nereyda's review and I have no regrets.

This book was utterly fantastic. I was hooked within the first chapter and didn't want to put it down. It was a really quick read and yet a lot happened within those pages and the characters really stood out to me.

Savvy's lot in life sucks. Her mom has abandoned her and her brother Evan and her father is a drunk. Savvy is stuck at a school for delinquents due to her anger management problems and she has the threat of her aunt taking her brother away looming over her. Life is tough. Not just for her, but for her friends too. She doesn't have it easy and you can tell. 

The fact there is also a romance in this book is sweet but that romance is no way the focus of this book. Cameron is a friend first and he cares. I would have liked to learn more about him but what we do learn is that he is a genuinely good guy. The contrast between his family and Savvy's is shocking. The contrast between Savvy's family and Retha's is shocking to be fair. Savvy has a terrible family life and so seeing her realisation about this fact throughout the book was good. I may hate the trend for absent parents in YA but it is definitely explained well in this book as to why Savvy's parents are absent and that is what I like.

I think the reason this book was so good is because the characters are strong and so is the story. It hooks you in and keeps you reading. I do have gripes about the book, I felt like more backstory for all the characters would have been good, yet what we got is substantial enough, especially considering the length of the book. And I did feel the story may have been a bit rushed towards the end, but then there wasn't a lot more which could have happened so it wasn't offputting. And I most certainly felt that somethings at the end of the book could have been handled better, but I don't mind the way it went.

In the end, I really enjoyed this book. I stayed up late to finish and I was emotional by the end. It was fantastic.

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I've had my eye on All in Pieces since I first saw it because I just LOVE Suzanne Young's books. I held off reading it for a couple weeks post-election, however, because I was in a funk. Not just a book funk. A total funk. I didn't want my mood to potentially ruin an otherwise amazing book. I decided to buy the audiobook and listen to it on my drive back to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Great choice on my part, except that my drive is only 3 and a half hours, the book is a little over 7 and I ended up buying the Kindle version once I got home because I was hopelessly addicted and couldn't wait until I had audiobook listening time to find out what happened next. Did I mention I also bought a hardcover copy because I was in love? Yeah. This is one of THOSE books and I'm not even a little sorry about it. 

All in Pieces was wonderful. It was practically made of feels. It reminded me why I still enjoy reading young adult contemporary every now and then. Savvy was so strong and protective of her brother. It simultaneously warmed and broke my heart. Her situation was so bad, but she tried to make the most of it and was hopelessly dedicated to helping her brother in any way she could. Cameron was ten kinds of swoony and I loved how he was patient with her when, honestly, I wanted to shake sense into her for being so blind to him.

I teared up more than once reading this book. I'm not kidding when I say it gave me all the feels. It was so easy to get behind Savvy and feel the hopelessness of the situation. I fell hard for both of these characters — and even some of the secondary ones. I was pretty much lost when I finished reading this one. It gave me a wickedly brutal book hangover and I'm still not sure I'm entirely over it. I think All in Pieces wrapped up in a wonderfully hopeful way and I'd love to see a check in with these characters sometime in the future. I'm greedy like that. 

FAVORITE QUOTES

  “When you don't have much, you hold on to what matters. You hold on with both hands.”

Sometimes it's hard. You can care so much about a person, give so much... but I've learned that love isn't always enough.

All in Pieces

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