Book Review! Crux by Julie Reece

Blurb …

She should have run. Now, she’ll have to fight.

Eighteen year old Birdie may be homeless, but she’s surviving, that is until a mysterious guy throws money in the air like a crazy game show host, and she grabs some with the idea she’ll be able to buy dinner that night.

In that singular moment, unassuming Birdie becomes the girl in everyone’s viewfinder. Thugs want to kill her. Money-guy wants to recruit her. The very hot, very rich and very out of her league, Grey Mathews, wants to save her.

Birdie, though, wants nothing to do with any of them, until she realizes fate didn’t bring them all together.

Her heritage did.

Now, with only twenty-one days left, she’s got to decide whether to follow in the footsteps of those before her or risk her life for people she’s only just met.

Review …
So, what did I think about Crux? Um … ::taps finger against chin:: How best to say this … it was awesome!

Let’s start with … “the boy”. Grey Mathews. Um. Yumminess? Grey is this super protective guy. It’s clear he’s like that around almost everyone, but for Birdie, he’s seriously protective. Almost too much, which leads to both the romantic element of the book as well as quite a bit of conflict. I like that this isn’t an “I fall in love with you” “you love me back” and their relationship is perfect. It’s not. Everything about their relationship is contrary to what Birdie really wants in life.

On Birdie, she’s the perfect combination of torn between reality and wishing life could be easier. She’s never had it easy and I was desperate for her to have **something** good happen. You think that’s going to happen right in the beginning and then that doesn’t work out. You think it’ll work a few chapters later and THAT doesn’t work out. Then she starts training for this mission that’s part of a heritage she didn’t know she had. I realize there’s a lot of that ‘out there’ (teens not knowing about their heritage) but it’s so apt because what 17/18/19 year old really knows who their grandparents were? Who their parents were even?

So we learn along with Birdie and we grow as Birdie does. We hurt for her, we pine for Grey (okay … *I* did) and we want her to succeed. I so wanted her to succeed. By the end, as she and Grey are in the last battle, hoping to win the last of the fight and ***SPOILER*** he dies ***ENDSPOILER*** I wanted to throw the book at the wall.

Yes, I did.

We’d spent that whole time getting to know Birdie and Grey, learning about their likes and dislikes, seeing them mature, seeing them willing to risk themselves for each other and for people they don’t even know and every time, Birdie loses. Every time.

I just wanted her to win, once!

And then she did.

And my heart went from sad to happy (which is the most important thing in my life because I need happily ever afters).

Because she won.

Finally.

In everything.

And therein lies the ‘crux’ of the story. It’s a time of deliverance and self confidence. Birdie’s coming into her own. She is growing and getting help and fighting the ‘good fight’. She’s letting people into her life. It’s about her ‘learning to fly’ so to speak and it’s set in a magical, but ‘urban’ world, which makes it even more applicable – relevant. And with Grey, her heart can start to thaw, and she can learn to love.

Sidekicks in this book are awesome. ‘Jeff’ is a trip. And Fenris is … well … there, I’m going to have to let you decide. He’s … a wolf of his own kind. Kate and Dylan and Scud are great secondary characters and Isabelle … well … every YA book needs the snotty, snobby, overtly show-off-ish blonde girl. Especially one who is the exact opposite of the main blond girl.

There you have it. Crux. An awesome read. Don’t miss out.

{As a fellow author, I was privileged to read this story prior to its release.}