Crash by Nicole Williams Review

Crash by Nicole Williams

(Crash #1)

Release Date: July 18, 2012

Publisher: Harper Collins; 365 pages

Southpointe High is the last place Lucy wanted to wind up her senior year of school. Right up until she stumbles into Jude Ryder, a guy whose name has become its own verb, and synonymous with trouble. He's got a rap sheet that runs longer than a senior thesis, has had his name sighed, shouted, and cursed by more women than Lucy dares to ask, and lives at the local boys home where disturbed seems to be the status quo for the residents. Lucy had a stable at best, quirky at worst, upbringing. She lives for wearing the satin down on her ballet shoes, has her sights set on Juilliard, and has been careful to keep trouble out of her life. Up until now.

Jude's everything she needs to stay away from if she wants to separate her past from her future. Staying away, she's about to find out, is the only thing she's incapable of.

For Lucy Larson and Jude Ryder, love's about to become the thing that tears them apart.

When I first read the summary for Crash, I pretty much thought I knew exactly what this book would be about.  A shy naive good girl who has her life in order, meets a bad boy and then she tries to save said bad boy.  Boy was I wrong!  Yes, Crash does have some similarities to your standard young adult contemporary story, but it definitely has a story of it's own.

Lucy Larson is a dancer who in her last year of high school transfers from private to public school due to her family's money problems.  During her last few days of summer vacation she runs into Jude Ryder on the beach.  When Lucy and Jude met, sparks immediately flew.  As a reader, I loved this.  I know some people don't really care for love at first sight.  But when it's written really well, you can't help but love it.  The attraction between Lucy and Jude couldn't have been written any better.

I was really into the beginning of this book.  I quickly discovered that try as she might, Lucy really isn't a good girl.  She's not a bad girl either, but she definitely has some edge to her.  She doesn't take anything from anyone, and she fights her own battles.  Jude on the other hand is rough around the edges to put it mildly.  But he cares for his loved ones.  He's had a hard life.  I really loved Lucy and Jude's relationship. While it's definitely not completely healthy, it's so steamy that you can't help but love reading it.

Their relationship is really what kept me motivated to finish this book.  Because to be honest towards the middle it started to drag for me.  I kept finding myself imagining certain scenes being written a different way, or wanting more depth from minor characters.  I felt like scenes were skipped.  At one point I even flipped back a few pages to see if I missed something because after one chapter, the next chapter was literally a few months later.

I was also a little surprised that there are going to be 3 books in this series.  Because I felt like the end of Crash was a good ending.  I am a little afraid that the story may start to get a little tedious, if the next two books are the same story as the first.  But I am intrigued enough to give the second book Clash a try!