Review- Salvation by Anne Osterlund

Summary-

Salvador Resendez--Salva to his friends--appears to have it all. His Mexican immigrant family has high expectations, and Salva intends to fulfill them. He's student body president, quarterback of the football team, and has a near-perfect GPA. Everyone loves him.

Especially Beth Courant, AKA the walking disaster area. Dreamy and shy, Beth is used to blending into the background. But she's also smart, and she has serious plans for her future.

Popular guy and bookish girl--the two have almost nothing in common. Until fate throws them together and the attraction is irresistible. Soon Beth is pushing Salva to set his sights higher than ever--because she knows he has more to offer, more than even he realizes.

Then tragedy strikes--and threatens to destroy everything that Salva has worked for. Will Beth's love be enough to save him?

Thoughtful and romantic, this is a beautifully written story about following your heart and fulfilling your potential.

Review-

With its beautiful cover and intriguing summary Salvation seemed to catch my interest the first time I saw it. It was a good read. Some things were the same while some weren't. If you go in without any expectations this book just might surprise you. It was a fairly quick read which you could get over with in a few hours of time.

Salvation is the story of Salva. To his friends he appears to be perfect and he is to a certain extent. He's the student body president, quarterback of the football team. He has a loyal set of friends who want whats best for him. His Mexican immigrant family has high expectations of him and he intends to meet them all.

Beth is dreamy and shy. She's used to blending in the background. But she has high hopes and plans of getting into college and moving ahead in life. Beth was a really sweet girl. She's had a crush on Salva since middle school but he hasn't even noticed she existed. When Salva needs help from Beth in AP English Beth just can't say no to him and so their unexpected friendship begins which soon turns into so much more.

Beth and Salva both were likeable characters. Salva had to face family pressure while Beth suffered from neglect from her alcoholic mother. But when they came together it was really cute. The romance moves at a slightly slow pace but it seems just right for Beth and Salva. I liked all the conversations between Salva and his friends too. It was very realistic and kept me engaged.

The only problem I had with it was that the novel goes from third person's point of view but sometimes the change from Salva to Beth felt broken to me. Also time was fast forwarded and it took me a minute to realize that that had happened. Salvation also deals with issues which I hadn't read in any other YA books. Some of the book was pretty much what you expected but there was one twist which got me in the end. If you're looking for a different YA read you should give Salvation a try.

Janhvi