Review: I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Title: I'll Meet You There
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Publication Date: February 3, 2015
Stars: 4 of 5

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.

Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper. (Goodreads)

Review:
Skylar Evans, lives with her mother in a trailer park. 9 times out of 10, the only future that inhabitants of that town have to look forward to, are trailers, a job at a gas station, and babies.Sky, and her friend Christ are the only members of their graduating class leaving for college and Sky just has to make it through the summer. However as the summer progresses Sky's plans are derailed by her mothers renewed drinking problem that seems to be nurtured by a bad news guy who has friends with her dad (not deceased after a drunk driving accident) and the return of an old co-work/ town heart throb Josh Mitchell. Through out the Summer Sky and Josh (who lost a leg in Afghanistan) grow closer as Sky unconsciously helps Josh with his PTSD, and a relationship develops.

My Thoughts:
I liked this book, it reminded me of The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry. My heart went out to Sky. She'd kept away from all temptations while classmates, drank, partied, and dallied in romances, because she was so focused on her goals which she achieved with a full Scholarship to an art program in San Francisco. I liked how we were able to see how Sky's art affected her, how it was what she used to focus when life got out of control. The relationship progression between Sky and Josh worked for me. I always make a face when characters start throwing the world love around (and I did it in this book as well), but... I don't know, it didn't both me as much as it has in other books. I can't speak too much to Josh's PTSD because although I come from a military family, my family members were lucky enough to have had to experience hand to hand combat. I imagine that Josh's struggles were very real, jumping when car backfire, experiencing flashbacks when they hear certain phrases, adjusting to relationships now that he's, not only been to war, but come back without a leg.

All in all I was happy with the characters, the setting, and I like that we have a rather ambiguous ending. All of our questions aren't answered, but I wasn't left unsatisfied.