Title: Flawed
Author: Kate Avelynn
Release Date: November 22nd 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Source: NetGalley
Sarah O’Brien is alive because of the pact she and her brother made twelve years ago — James will protect her from their violent father if she promises to never leave him. For years, she’s watched James destroy his life to save hers. If all he asks for in return is her affection, she’ll give it freely.
Until, with a tiny kiss and a broken mind, he asks for more than she can give.
Sam Donavon has been James’ best friend — and the boy Sarah’s had a crush on — for as long as she can remember. As their forbidden relationship deepens, Sarah knows she’s in trouble. Quiet, serious Sam has decided he’s going to save her. Neither of them realizes James is far more unstable than her father ever was, or that he’s not about to let Sarah forget her half of the pact...I had my worries even before I started reading Flawed, not because I knew it would tackle incest and abuse, but because I wanted to avoid the emotional trauma. Obviously, I love harming myself with books.
The beginning of the story introduced us to Sarah, in whose POV the book was written, and her - there's no other way to say it - horrible life, which had always been about fearing her retired boxer and alcoholic of a father, and resenting her uncaring mother. But she had James, her older brother, her provider, her savior, always there to receive their father's hits and lashes that were supposed to be for her.
I love books that make me question the line between right and wrong, and this was definitely one of those. I understood Sarah's love and loyalty to James, but also her need to be free from him. And even though his feelings for Sarah were all sorts of twisted, I couldn't help but sympathize with and, in the end, pity James, because he could've become so much better if not for their father, who, for me, was the real antagonist in this story.
Then there was Sam, whose love for Sarah was so pure and moving that, if I could, I would've locked her up in his beat-up sports car until they were well away from all of her problems. Their romance progressed quite fast, but that's because their feelings for each other had been simmering for years.
Halfway through the story, I was wishing for a happy ending while expecting the worst, and thank heavens I did because had I not, that ending would've crushed me even more than it did. But what I love about fiction is I can easily make it go the way I want it to in my mind, and that's exactly what I'm doing right now as self-therapy.
MY FAVORITE PART was when Sarah went with James to a salon for a haircut. I don't know, I just have a thing for bonding with siblings ♥... even if that probably wasn't all it was to James.
RATING:
I swear, it's worth getting wrecked for, lol. Thanks! :D
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