Susan

Re-read January 2 2016.

Still awesome!

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4.5 stars

BR with the lovely Elsbeth.

It was such a pleasure reading this. The writing was so captivating, this book made me smile, it made me laugh out loud and it made me cry.



This could have easily have become a depressing story because of the heavy subjects, but it wasn’t. Was there angst? Yes there was. Was it gut wrenching, pull out your hair angst? No, it wasn’t.

Lysander is a spoiled rich 19 year old looking for attention by having orgies, doing drugs and basically messing up his life. His father sends him to a home for troubled teenagers to cope with his problems.

He gets sent to his aunt first to pick up his cousin Finn, who is also being sent to the home. On the way over Finn tells Lysander that being a rich kid is easy, so Lysander suggests they switch identities. They look a lot alike so he is positive no one will notice.

In the group home he meets other kids who all have their own problems. And then there is bad boy Cai. Cai and Lysander don’t like each other… well, at first.

“I still haven’t decided if you’re okay or if you’re an asshole,” Cai informed me succinctly. “That’s fine. If it comes down to it, we can hate-fuck.”

These boys were so incredibly hot together. Scorching hot!



I fell in love with Lysander and his quirky sense of humor. He was absolutely awesome!

I also really liked Finn and the unexpected friendship between him and Lysander. The switched identity stuff was hilarious at times.

“So, I had therapy today. Um.” Finn swayed a little. “Dr. Brookhard asked me some interesting questions.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” He looked at me, biting his lip. “You want to tell me about your cocaine addiction?”
I groaned, throwing my head back. “I don’t have a cocaine addiction.”
“Oh. Well. Um.” Finn cleared his throat. “You kinda do now.”

And the other kids at the group home were amazing. Each had their own set of problems and it all felt so real to me. No flat side characters here.

There is some angst at the end, but I knew that was inevitable. It wasn’t that bad and it wasn’t prolonged to create a plot. I was impressed that the rest of the book made me have all these happy feelings even though it revolved around people who considered themselves broken. Spectacularly Broken.