Review & Giveaway: A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook & Brendan Halpin

A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Release Date: July 23, 2013

Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

A hint of Recovery Road, a sample of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and a cut of Juno. A Really Awesome Mess is a laugh-out-loud, gut-wrenching/heart-warming story of two teenagers struggling to find love and themselves.

Two teenagers. Two very bumpy roads taken that lead to Heartland Academy.
Justin was just having fun, but when his dad walked in on him with a girl in a very compromising position, Justin's summer took a quick turn for the worse. His parents' divorce put Justin on rocky mental ground, and after a handful of Tylenol lands him in the hospital, he has really hit rock bottom.

Emmy never felt like part of her family. She was adopted from China. Her parents and sister tower over her and look like they came out of a Ralph Lauren catalog-- and Emmy definitely doesn't. After a scandalous photo of Emmy leads to vicious rumors around school, she threatens the boy who started it all on Facebook.

Justin and Emmy arrive at Heartland Academy, a reform school that will force them to deal with their issues, damaged souls with little patience for authority. But along the way they will find a ragtag group of teens who are just as broken, stubborn, and full of sarcasm as themselves. In the end, they might even call each other friends.
A funny, sad, and remarkable story, A Really Awesome Mess is a journey of friendship and self-discovery that teen readers will surely sign up for

My Thoughts:
This is the kind of book that will stay with me for days.  Is it mind blowing no, is it beyond exciting not even a little bit, but it is about real issues and shows the true side of teens.  I appreciate what Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin have written and I really wish I would have had something like this to read when I was younger.

In this story we have Justin and Emmy, 2 teens who have been sent to Heartland Academy. Heartland Academy is a reform school and they have been sent there for very different reasons but their families both hope for the same conclusion, they hope Emmy and Justin will become mentally and physically healthy again.

I have read books like this before, but honestly none of them have come anywhere close to this one.  It kinda felt like 28 Days the movie just for teens and well I won't lie I loved that movie.  Justin and Emmy were two amazing characters.  They both were honestly very messed up and they each had their own issues and watching them understand what those issues really were was just awesome.  I used to want to be a therapist when I grew up so maybe that is one reason why this book talked to me so much, but it also has to do with the authors.  I don't know how they did it, but they really captured teenagers.  The teens in this book cursed, yelled, got into fights, and just told it how it was.  That was exactly how I was when I was younger, well I didn't speak my mind all the time but some of my friends did.  On the flip side of all that anger though we get to see each teen work through their problems and realize that they need to trust each other including themselves or they are never going to work through their problems.  Again I really wish I had read this way back when because it would have helped me figure a few things out.

I was proud of the characters in this book by the end, they deserved where they each ended up and honestly I want a sequel.  I am not sure what that sequel would include, but I just want to know the outcome of certain characters.  I kinda feel like we are left hanging even though it did end on a happy note.  That just proves how good a book this was, if you read something and you just want more no matter what that more would be then that makes the book you just read pretty fantastic.

4 snowflakes

The lovely people are Egmont have offered to give one lucky reader a hardcover copy of A Really Awesome Mess!  Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter!  Open to US Residents only.

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 Find the Authors:

Trish Cook

Branden Halpin