Christie's Review: Eyes Turned Skyward by Rebecca Yarros

Title:Eyes Turned Skyward

Series: Unnamed #2

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Release Date: December 8, 2014

Rating:3.5 stars

Cliffhanger: No

Since her sister's death, twenty-year-old Paisley Donovan, who shares her sister’s heart condition, is treated like delicate glass by her parents. But nothing will stop her from completing her Bucket List—even if it kills her. And it almost does, until Jagger Bateman pulls her from the ocean and breathes more than air into her lungs—he sets her soul on fire.

Jagger is enrolled in the country's toughest flight school. He's wickedly hot, reckless, and perfect for a girl looking to live life to the fullest. Except that Paisley is the commanding general's daughter, and her boyfriend is Jagger's biggest rival. Now Paisley must decide just how much to risk for a guy who makes her heart pound a little too hard.

They're flying through dangerous territory—and one wrong move could make them crash and burn...

I was more than excited to see that Rebecca Yarros had a new release that was just on the verge of release day. I was beside myself. I completely fell for this author and her style of writing. Full Measures was so beautifully written and emotionally rich and it's one of those books that sticks with you long after you've finished. It was a perfect example of how to do New Adult right. I had a hard time rating this one, I really was leaning toward 4 stars, but there was something inherent in the plot that I kept hoping would get resolved and that just didn't happen until nearly the end. The time this took to work itself out and the resulting effects were pretty frustrating to me. I settled on 3.5 stars, but don't let that fool you into thinking this was just an average read for me. This author's ability to wring emotion out of me was still noticeably present in this book and I enjoyed not only the MC's growth from friendship and the forbidden love angst, but also getting to see more of Josh and Ember from book one.

The forbidden love angle in this book was pretty strong. There were several reasons why logically, these two shouldn't get together:

*She has the same potentially fatal heart condition that her sister died from and she's recklessly trying to complete a bucket list because she feels like she's living on borrowed time. Falling in love would only hurt them in the long run if her health doesn't stabilize.

*She's the general's daughter and he's a flyboy in flight school run by her father. If she gets hurt, he can kiss his career goodbye.

*He's more than a little rebellious and she's a good girl. In fact, he pulled a prank before he met her that almost got him kicked out. He's not her father's favorite person.

*She has a boyfriend named Will. He's Jagger's top competition standing in the way of his lifelong dream of flying the highly coveted Apache Helicopter.

I was everything she didn't need: self-destructive, egotistical, and reckless. But damn if she didn't feel like what I needed. Even only as friends, I'd take whatever piece of her I could get.

When Jagger pulls her out of the water and rescues her from drowning, she stirs feelings that he hasn't experienced before with other girls and it leaves him feeling very unsettled. But their meeting was fleeting and he never expects to see her again. Which is probably for the best because he can't afford any distractions right now. Little does he know that she's about to turn up in his life in an unexpected way very soon.

When he pulls a prank and gets caught, he's ordered to help out in the library with repairs and clean up. And who is the sweet, southern, blonde librarian he sees after walking in? You guessed it. Paisley, our heroine. When Jagger comes along and jumbles everything around and turns her world upside down, she's even more set adrift than she was before.



This couple had a deep instant attraction, but lived in denial of their feelings. Paisley struggles with her illness and feeling like she's in a gilded cage with her parents and boyfriend. Everyone treats her like a fragile, weak girl who's incapable of making her own choices. Her feelings for Will are very muddled. I think she was with him because he was her sister's best friend and it helps her cling to her sister's memory. He's also a really good guy, but their feelings of love are based on friendship rather than passion and she doesn't want to see that.

She finally feels intensity and need and thrills at the freedom she can explore with him. Jagger pushes her to live her life with passion and zest when all she's ever known was moderation.



My reasoning for lowing my rating was based on a couple of things. One thing bothered me about how they got together but it may not bother others. The reason she finally leaves her boyfriend is because she slipped and kissed Jagger. She admitted it to Will immediately after it happened, she felt remorseful and heartbroken, but I couldn't help but wish that she had had the strength to leave Will first before anything happened. It was kind of the catalyst to push her to see reality-how her feelings with Will were lacking. I didn't like that she hurt him in that way.

But my main issue was based on the heroine's inability to face reality over her medical condition (continuing to do dangerous stunts that endangered her health) and her complete stubbornness in avoiding telling Jagger about how sick she is. She hides this from him for almost the entire book and I kept chanting repeatedly...Tell him. Tell him. Please, for the love of god, tell that poor man. She never did admit it to him until it was taken out of her hands. He deserved to know her fragile situation and she selfishly allowed his feelings to grow deeper while keeping him in the dark. They even swore to each other to be completely honest with each other and yet their relationship is based on her lies of omission. *sigh* If it weren't for that, I would have easily given this 4 stars or more, but that was frustrating on a level I couldn't ignore. (I tried.)

I did love this couple's sweet connection, Jagger's addiction and fire that he had for her and how incredibly protective he was. They were adorable together, and they had a lot of angst and intensity between them.



While I didn't rate this book as enthusiastically as the last, I still adore this author's writing and am without a doubt reading the next book about Grayson. Her ability to make you swoon, laugh, curse, and smile right along with her characters makes her an author that I will continue to follow.



FOLLOW SMOKIN HOT BOOK BLOG ON:





View all my reviews