Blog Tour: Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook Review

Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook
Release Date: January 29, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen; 272 pages

Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.

They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.

Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger....

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.

Nobody But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival, choices, and love...and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.

To be honest, I've been sitting on my feelings about this book for a few days now and I still am not entirely sure how I feel. I really enjoyed it but at the same time, something is holding me back from loving it. I keep going back & forth between a three or a four star rating...so I'd stick with a 3.5 but we don't do half stars so...because of my indecision's, I'm going with a three star.

The characters, I loved them. Will, he was a bit rough around the edges but he truly loves Zoe with all of his being. He's got an angry side which comes out on many occasions but he hasn't exactly had a great childhood. Being abandoned by his mother at the age of two because she couldn't handle raising him, thought it'd be best she give him up to someone who could. Problem is, he never found that someone. Not really. He moved around from home to home until he ended up in North Dakota in a group home. He was released from the state's care when he turned 18. Up in this group home is when he met Zoe, who is a fifteen year old, broken girl. Witnessed her mother's death when she was little and living with an abusive, alcoholic father using makeup the best she can to cover up her bruises. Both damaged souls come together in perfectly.

The alternating chapters were awesome. Zoe is so innocent and I loved reading from her points of view but I really enjoyed Will's more. You could see how he knows his anger is an issue, how he doesn't want it to be but things just come out. It's like an internal struggle you get to see and I really like that because it's so real. As often as you see him drop everything to fight someone he never ever directs that anger at Zoe. He would never be like her father, someone who laid a hand on her in that way. That just shows the reader how much she really does mean to him.

They're young, they make a lot of wrong decisions but they're trying to reach the end which is the perfect future with the two of them. They see the picture but it's reaching the end point that is the biggest struggle. So many obstacles show up and it's just...rough. I really believe they should've stayed with Julie and maybe gone to see Misty, her daughter eventually. Two people who played such a positive role in Will's past back in Nevada. Back before things got really bad for him. They might be the only people, besides Zoe, who truly loved him.

The ending. Oh my gosh, that ending. I am still trying to fathom it. I just can't...and I can't even say anything about it because it would give away so much and then it would like 'what's the point in reading?' which is not what I want. But oh man...I can't even put in to words how rough this ending was is.

It's definitely different from what I normally stick to, the Fantasy/Paranormal stories but reading Contemporary is always a great vacation from the norm. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, which may surprise you because it's a three star rating but it's one that is a great read and the story sticks with you for some time. Which definitely makes it a great book but it's all about what the reader likes in how they'd come away from this story. Read it and see how you feel.