I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Published February 3, 2015 by Henry Holt BFYR/Macmillan

Skylar is a typical small-town girl; she works at the Paradise Motel, the only motel for miles and lives in a trailer with her mom. Creek View isn’t exactly the biggest town in California. She is planning on leaving Creek View to pursue her dream and start her year at art school in San Fran.

Josh is a Marine who is back in town because he lost his leg in Afghanistan. Being in the Marines has made him a better man, but has also taken a part of him away and he has nightmares every night.

Skylar and Josh have known each other since they were little, and now, Josh is a new man, and Sky starts to see something more in him. Then Sky’s world falls apart. Her mom loses her job, they are dead broke and art school might turn into a fantasy. A character-based plot that revolves around the small-town setting, this beautiful story about new love, friends and hardships is a great light, but not too light contemporary read for the summer.

My thoughts:

CHARACTERS: Skylar was a super cool person. I kind of was able to relate with her since I try not to run into trouble and do my best to make the right decisions, and so did Skylar so it was cool to be able to connect with her. You could tell that she really cared about her mom even though she could be a real pain in the butt sometimes. She really valued her friends, too, and it was so nice seeing the closeness of her and Dylan and Chris and how they feel about moving away from each other. Josh was not my favorite person; I love how he is so dedicated to his passion, the Marines, and even though he lost his leg he is not giving up on his friends and his purpose. He made so stupid choices but he is so preoccupied by the war and losing people he loved that you have feel bad for him at times.

SETTING: I loved the setting in this story; I can see why Skylar wants to get out and I could just picture it in my head very vividly. The Paradise Motel was one of the coolest places in a book I’ve read; I want to work there! It sounds awesome, being able to swim and hang out with your friends and have themed rooms. I just loved the setting. It literally played out like a movie in my head; Heather is so good at writing descriptively and you can visualize her books very well.

PLOT: I really liked the story, and it was definitely not your typical bot meets girl=instalove story. This relationship didn’t pop out of nowhere; it was well-formed, shocking at parts and enjoyable. It could be slow at times but I understand that contemporaries don’t have things going on every second of the story. The story was just so real and I loved Josh’s POVs all throughout this—they were full of emotion and remorse and heartache. I love how they were a silent conversation between him and someone else (AKA not saying who bc spoiler) and you could feel his pain and sorrow. He is simply a cat treat, basically—crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, if that makes any sense. I thought the plot was great, and not too fast or too slow, just right.

COVER: This cover. Is gorgeous. It goes with the story, the colors are vivid and old-fashioned, and the sign is very retro and awesome. I love the sky in the background and this picture is just perfect. It is definitely my favorite Heather Demetrios cover and gosh, this book definitely deserves this cover.

OVERALL: I’ll Meet You There was a cute, adorable story with a vivid setting and relatable characters and lovely writing. The relationship wasn’t rushed and the characters faced struggles were not easy too overcome. This heartfelt, touching story about Sky and Josh forming an unlikely relationship should go on your TBR.

More info about the book:

400 Pages

Contemporary YA

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion.*

ALSO, I’d like to bring your attention to a SUPER cool promotion Heather is doing for I’ll Meet You There!

From Heather’s website:

Order IMYT between now and Valentine’s Day and receive a handwritten love letter via snail mail from Josh, signed bookplate, and bookmark. Click above for details.

Also, heather is donating a dollar to the Wounded Warrior Project for every purchase of I’ll Meet You There this week. So what are you waiting for? Order I’ll Meet You There today!