Live Me by Celeste Grande

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Broken…

Shattered…

How can you begin to live again when you’ve already been forced to… die?

Evangelina Ricci is trapped in a world that’s a never-ending nightmare, a constant ache in which consumes her every breath. Unable to bear the torture any longer, she does the one thing she can to take back control.

Run.

With her best friend Jace in tow, Evangelina attempts to escape her darkened past by leaving for college and diving head first into an aggressive schedule, determined with everything she is to make a name for herself. There’s only one problem—she can’t run away from the demons she struggles with. The demons that’ll forever be there, locked inside, battering her soul. Hiding behind a flawless façade, Evangelina faces her ghosts until her world is turned upside down, invaded by… him.

Blake Turner. Sweet, witty, flirtatious and drop-dead gorgeous, he finds Evangelina at every turn. Scared he’ll uncover the truth she keeps so well guarded, Evangelina tries her best to put on her act, deterring him like she has so many times before—only this guy’s different. He’s relentless. Utterly, absolutely and completely relentless. He sees her and he wants her and won’t stop until she’s his.

Will Evangelina succeed in pushing Blake away? Or will he break down her walls and be the person to make her realize life is worth living?

 

*****5 Utterly Breathtaking and Emotional Stars*****

Have you ever read a book, and felt beyond connected to what you’re reading heart, mind, and soul? Have you ever had a book take hold of you from the very first page, the very first word really and pull you in so fiercely that you’re not sure how you’re ever going to let the story or its characters go? Have you ever read a book so breathtakingly emotional with such intense, all-feeling, and consuming feeling and emotion that you literally feel through every breath of that book?

Have you ever read a book that you knew you’d never forget reading from the first moment you started that book because was so outstanding, so superb, and so everything?

Well if you’ve never experienced a book like that, then you need to read Live Me by Celeste Grande this very instant because it not only gives you all of that, it gives you more. It gives you everything. From the first page of this book I knew I would love this book, and that it would be a book that would stay with me. The level of varied and mesmerizing emotion and feeling that encapsulates you from the very first page will have you breathing, and living, and experiencing every single phenomenal ounce of what this book has to offer. It’ll also having you fighting and rooting for Blake and Eva in this story something fierce, and hoping with all you have that those two can find a way to make it all work.

I can’t say enough how much I felt this book, how much I lived through it with these characters as it progressed, how much I loved every heartbreaking, hopeful, pain and love laced word all the way through.

Celeste Grande and her utterly phenomenal writing made me so immensely invested in these characters, their emotions, their lives and their story, and every other distinctively wonderful thing about them from the first page. I’m still invested in them, still loving and caring and rooting for them so fiercely with all I have as I sit here writing this review. That is a true testament to the power of this book and the talent of Celeste Grande and the thoughtfully crafted and exceptionally written story she gave me in Live Me.

What I absolutely loved about Live Me by Celeste Grande:

• The many layers of Evangelina Ricci. Eva’s character was one of the most fantastic and well developed characters that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. The many layers of her character that made her who she was allowed me to understand her character on the truest of levels. I got her in Live Me. I feel like she’s one of my best friends after reading this book, and I can’t tell you enough how much I love and feel and hope for her character. Eva has been through so much, so much more than any person has or deserves to go through, yet that girl is still fighting. She’s still trying and pushing through even though most would crumble, and even in those moments when the crumbling starts to happen, she’s there trying as much as she can. She is truly one of the strongest and most dynamic female characters I’ve ever read, and the emotional connection and love I felt for her character was out of this world.
• Blake’s heartfelt determination. Blake Turner just about melted my heart more times than I could count while reading this book, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the puddle of goo that he created in my heart. Not only was his heartfelt determination to win over Eva shining through every word of this book, throughout it all you knew that it was real, that he was being wholly honest and true, and that he wanted that girl with every ounce of what he had. Blake is one of the most endearing male characters that I have read, and what I loved so much about his character was that he was so determined through it all, and even when things were not looking good or when Eva wasn’t making it easy on him, he was there giving it his all and being a good guy through and through. I am telling you now that man will take your heart with everything he has and you’ll be willingly giving it to him because he is that good, that charming, and that wonderful.
• A heartbreaking story laced with so much. Live Me definitely tells a story that is heart squeezing to say the least. It covers a very hard and real topic, and it shows the ramifications emotionally, physically, and mentally of very real trauma. This story weaves together those ramifications with an out of this world love story, with a story of pain and feeling and so many moments that’ll have tears coming to your eyes, but also with a story of hope and healing that will show the true power of honest and vulnerable love and what it can do for you. That’s a huge part of what I loved about Live Me: it brought such a well-rounded story together. It definitely was heartbreaking and filled with pain and so many emotionally gut wrenching moments at times, but it also gave me hope and healing and love, and the amazing and life changing things that can happen when you have all three.
• The growing love story. While this book was emotional and heart squeezing, it also gave me one the best love stories I’ve read. It gave me two people, who had such a fiercely strong connection, and it showed me what happened as they fought, thought about, and began to see what could happen if they embraced the enormity of what they were feeling. Their love story has such a build to it, and it sure wasn’t easy at times, but through it all it was there, with their feelings, their care, and their pull to one another becoming deeper, stronger, and more irresistible. Blake and Eva share something so wonderful, and the power and meaning behind all of those feelings will have you rooting like crazy for them both and hoping that they’re able to figure out a way to explore the extraordinary thing that they are and could be together.
• Supporting characters that bring it all together. I am a huge fan of supporting characters, and the ones in Live Me were fabulous in every way. Wonderfully distinctive in every way, the supporting characters of this book bring it all together in a way that is so fulfilling, especially Jace’s character. (I heart that man something fierce.) They all bring humor and thought provoking moments, they make you smile and cry a bit, and through it all they have you loving every moment you’re getting with them. I have my fingers crossed that as this story continues that I get more of them because I truly want and need it.
• Celeste Grande’s breathtakingly beautiful writing. Even though I know that this is this author’s first book, I find that so hard to believe because her writing is so exceptional and so utterly breathtaking. Her poetic and fluid writing and thoughtful storytelling created such an extraordinary story that I truly and deeply felt every word of. She put me in this book, she allowed me to fall in love with its characters on the most authentic level, and she invested me heart, mind, and soul in it all through her beautiful and all-feeling writing. She did this story, its subject line, and these characters such an immense justice with what she gave them, and I truly can’t wait for more from her. She made this book and everything within it so very real in the most remarkable and phenomenal way, and I have no doubt that I will absolutely love anything to come from her in the future.

Live Me was one of the most all-feeling, emotionally breathtaking, and consuming books that I have read. It blew me away with everything that it had, and Celeste Grande’s phenomenal writing brought it all to life in the most extraordinary way. I am telling you now that you will love this story. You will feel and live it with every ounce of your being because it is impossible not to feel this story. It’s impossible to not be completely taken with Eva and Blake’s story, and it is so incredibly impossible to not love those two with everything you have. Trust. Me.

This story is one that I know I will never forget. Blake and Eva are two characters I know will stay with me, and I am so beyond ready to see how their story will continue in this series. What Celeste Grande created in this book with them was everything. She let me hurt with them, she let me try to heal with them, and she let me hope and fight all the way through with them. That level of connection to characters and a story does not happen every day and in every book, and that is just a fraction of what makes this book so spectacular.

This book is about a lot of things. It’s about trauma, and pain, and what happens after as you try to put yourself back together again. It’s about first love and true love, and the butterflies, feelings, and emotions that come with it, and how all of that can scare you silly, but how it’s all so worth it. It’s about feeling and living and experiencing even when it hurts, even when it’s scary, and even when all you want to do is turn it all off. This book is about a lot of things, but most of all it’s about hope. The hope for more, the hope for healing, and the hope that the pains and hurt of the past can be trumped and taken over by the hope and love and healing of the future if you only give it a chance to happen.

Please read this book. I beg of you. It was everything and I seriously can’t recommend it to you enough. Read it. Love it. Feel it. Live it.

You need to. Trust me.

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