Review: How We Came To Be by Jamie Canosa

There are certain things we don’t talk about, and one such confidence brought 17-year-old Sara to the love of her life. But, will he be able to save her from the secrets, or will she drag him down with her?

"Ethan Harris was the boy I hadn’t been able to stop staring at since he moved in next door, the boy that every girl with eyes had swooned over at school for the past two years. The boy that had zeroed in on me from day one and refused to set his sights anywhere else. He must have asked me out a dozen different times, and every time I’d turned him down. The guy just wouldn’t take no for an answer. I guess he wasn’t used to hearing it very often."

My Review:

How We Came To Be by Jamie Canosa is an emotive and short read that will pull at your heart strings and make you believe in love all over again. It showcases seventeen-year-old, Sara who along with her ten-year-old brother live with their abusive and alcoholic father.

Sara has often kept her eye on her next door neighbor, Ethan, but never approached him or paid him any attention as she was too busy trying to survive her father’s episodes.

But one day, her father goes too far and Sara blacks out. When she comes to, Ethan is in her house, comforting her. When she reveals what is happening to Ethan, she makes him promise not to tell anyone.

Ethan, distraught at what he has learned, is torn between helping the girl he has fallen in love with and keeping her trust. Can Ethan truly save Sara and her brother and show Sara how much he truly cares for her?

 

I came to, a cool pressure against my face. My head was lying on something…not soft but comfortable. I blinked my eyes open, fighting a wave of nausea.

“Hey, there you are,” a soft voice cooed.

The voice was vaguely familiar, but I just couldn’t grasp why at the moment. I had to blink hard several more times before things started to come back into focus. When they did, I saw I was still lying on the floor and my head was in someone’s lap.

The lap wasn’t Kevin’s; my brother was standing by the kitchen door looking terrified. I tried to smile reassuringly, but I’m pretty sure it just came across as a grimace. I groaned and rolled my head sideways, burying it deep in a soft red material that smelled fantastic. It smelled like cologne, and sunshine, and fresh air. It smelled like…

I rolled my head back so that it wasn’t pressed into his shirt any longer, and Ethan’s concerned face hovered over me.

“Hey, how’s your head?”

I tried to tell him I was fine, but the only thing that came out when I opened my mouth was another groan. I was not fine.

“All right,” Ethan said. “It’s okay. Kevin, can you get me some more ice, little man?”

My brother disappeared quickly into the kitchen, and Ethan leaned down closer to my face. “What happened? I was outside, and Kevin came flying out of the house to say you needed help. Who did this to you?”

“Where’s my dad?” I croaked.

“He wasn’t here when I came in. Do you want me to call him?”

“No!” I cried, a little too anxiously. “Please don’t.”

“All right, Sara.”

“Here.” Kevin rushed back to my side and passed Ethan a baggie full of ice cubes. The side of my face stung as Ethan gently pressed the bag to it, but in a moment the whole area felt blissfully numb. I just wished the rest of my body felt that way.

“Okay, listen.” Ethan removed the ice just long enough to take another look at my face. “I think you need to go to the hospital. I can go ask my parents to drive you, or I can call an ambulance.”

I must have looked really awful, because he couldn’t disguise the worry on his face. Kevin’s eyes practically bugged out of his head as he looked at me over Ethan’s shoulder.

“No. Really, I’m fine.” I struggled to sit up, but Ethan held me firmly in his lap.

“You shouldn’t move, Sara. What if there’s something seriously wrong?”

Kevin’s entire face went pale.

“Kevin, babe, can you give me and Ethan a few minutes to talk, please?” I asked. He didn’t look like he intended to go anywhere, so I added, “Just a few minutes. I’m fine. Everything’s going to be fine.”

He still didn’t look happy about it as he shuffled down the hallway to his bedroom. Once I heard his door click shut, I pushed myself off of Ethan’s lap. He tried again to restrain me but was unsuccessful this time. I got into a sitting position and gasped as the whole room started spinning again.

“Christ, Sara, stop moving.”

“Listen,” I told Ethan urgently, “I need you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“No parents, no ambulances, no hospitals. I’m all right now, Ethan. Just promise me you won’t tell anyone about this.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Rating: 3.5 Kisses

 

 

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*book was provided to Read Our Lips! for review via author*