I read this book when I was on vacation in July and realized I hadn't posted a review yet. Well here it is:

Title: Take Me There
Author: Carolee Dean
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 20, 2010
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages In This Edition: 336
Rating:

/5

On the Cover:

 Beyond the Cover:

Summary taken from Barnes and Noble:

"Dylan has a bad-boy past and a criminal record. He knows that rich, beautiful Jess is way too good for him—but she has always been the one person who sees through his tough exterior and straight to his heart, and he has been hopelessly in love with her from the first time they met. He would change his life for a chance with her.
But trouble follows Dylan wherever he goes, and a deadly mistake soon forces him to hit the road and leave his dreams behind. He’s on the run and in search of answers—answers to questions he wishes he’d never asked."

Review:
I saw this book cover all over the place for a long time, plus it was featured on the teen Simon and Schuster page for I don't know how long. I even had it on my Borders wishlist for months! I have to say it wasn't what I expected, and in this case that's a good thing! I pictured it to be a cookie-cutter bad-boy meets good-girl kind of thing that ended exactly how you expect (i.e. Perfect Chemistry). But it was anything but.

Take Me There is told, at least for most of the book, flopping back and forth between the present and the past. This allowed amazing insight behind key decisions made by Dylan and made for amazing pacing! Everything is racing toward the climax. An up, up, up of emotion and destruction.

The relationship between Jess and Dylan isn't what I expected it to be at all, and in fact it's not as big of a part of the story as you might think. The passion is easy to see, but the budding love is cut too short, which had me, at least a little bit, longing for more romance.

But what Take Me There is really about is choices; where they lead you and why we make them. Dylan has harder choices than some, but in the end he did the best he could.

I really loved this book because of the amazing pacing and Dylan (a bad boy any girl would love to try to tame), and I would have given it 5 stars if it hadn't been for the ending. It was not what I expected. But I guess it was a more realistic take on what would have happened given the circumstances.

Overall, Take Me There by Carolee Dean was a great coming of age story with romance and realistic staying power I'm sure you'll want to check out.


Remember look beyond the cover!
<3 Alexis