Synopsis: Tonight was so much worse than anything before it. Tonight he didn’t stop after the first slap.

At the beginning of senior year, Ann was a smiling, straight-A student and track star with friends and a future. Then she met a haunted young man named Connor. Only she can heal his emotional scars; only he could make her feel so loved — and needed. Ann can’t recall the pivotal moment it all changed, when she surrendered everything to be with him, but by graduation, her life has become a dangerous high wire act. Just one mistake could trigger Connor’s rage, a senseless storm of cruel words and violence damaging everything — and everyone — in its path.

This evocative slideshow of flashbacks reveals a heartbreaking story of love gone terribly wrong.

Review: The thing I really liked about this book, is that whilst it was a harrowing tale about emotional and physical abuse within a relationship, the author was really clever in telling this story - she did it backwards.

Rather than tell the story from the start of the relationship onwards, and as readers we start to see the signs and then think the victim is to blame for sticking with the abuser, she tells it backwards from climax to the start of the relationship, which actually blurs the line more. It makes the victim blameless… you can really start to get a sense of feel for what she has had to endure and go through and actually feel sorry for her because she feels so stuck within the relationship.

I am really happy that there are books like this one released within the YA genre… this is a powerful important story that needed to be told and I think it’s so important for young people to know this story and understand the importance of it.

Whilst not an enjoyable story to read, I am definitely glad I did. It was very well written.

Rating: 4 out of 5