25 May 2012

BooK Review - Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti

A romantic and empowering book about bullying

Noelle's life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn't know how much she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle's kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she's terrified. Surely it's safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it's time to stand up for herself--and for the love that keeps her holding on.


Check it out on Goodreads here. 
Release Date - 31st May 2012

7/10


This story was completely not what I expected it to be.  Just looking at the cover alone, it looks like a nice YA romance that I could relax to.  Putting the cover aside, this was a very emotional book to read.

Noelle is bullied at school and at home.  The most emotional part for me to read was the relationship Noelle has with her mother.  As a result of her mother getting pregnant straight after leaving High School, her mother believes that Noelle has ruined her life and doesn't let Noelle forget that fact.  What was every more shocking was that to be able to have money for her future, Noelle decides to get a job and put savings in the bank and, unfortunately, as she was not yet an adult, she had to get her mother to co-sign to open the bank account.  When Noelle went to check her bank account, she found out that her mother had taken all the funds in there  and was not even sorry for doing it.  

Its obvious that Noelle wants to get out of the situation she was in and I liked how the chapters counted down the number of days she had left until she could leave.  There are a couple of potential love interests, including Julian but I felt the power of the story was more on Noelle's day to day life trying to stay under the radar, both at home and at school.  

This story is a very powerful story more about focusing on the journey Noelle has to take while being bullied.  Although there is a bit of romance in the story, the main focus was on the bullying.  This one was a tough one for me to read because the content was quite heavy but it is definately a story that makes you stop and take notice.

Best wishes


Debs

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