😍REVIEW: "Pieces of You and Me" by Erin Fletcher (YA Romance)

	Pieces of You and Me by Erin Fletcher Publisher:Entangled Publishing: Crush Genre: YA Romance Publication Date: April 18, 2016 (Affiliate links)
Description from Publisher: Five years. That’s how long I’ve been gone. Since I left my best friend—the girl I loved—behind. Five seconds. That's how long it takes to realize I am completely, utterly, screwed. Because now that I’m back, my childhood crush has turned into so much more. Rylee has changed. We both have. And now I’m drawn to her in a completely different way. To her smile. Her touch. To reliving old memories and making new ones. To the happiness she’s always given me that I haven’t felt since I left. But her friends are hell-bent on keeping us apart. My dad is one drink away from destroying both of our lives, and maybe I am, too. It’s only a matter of time before I have to leave again, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I never get a choice. The one choice I can make? Stay away from Rylee. Because if I don’t, I’ll break her heart—and mine—all over again. Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains references to drinking, addiction, and just the right amount of angst. You’ll want to save this tortured hero, while at the same time, not want to change a single thing about him!
My Rating:	Sexiness Rating:
I received a digital ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.com for an honest, unbiased review. My opinion is my own. When I read the synopsis for this, I thought it sounded like it would have a lot of heart and be a nice mix of contemporary YA romance and emotional coming-of-age angsty situations. What I read was more a mix of contemporary YA romance with not enough genuine emotion, and too much unexplained angst. I liked Chase, but he felt like he was a stereotypical "loser." He was so insecure, and so troubled, and went about everything in a silently "Crying for Help" way. Being someone who had a rough time with "the popular crowd" in middle school, I could relate to him some, but I also expected to delve deeper into who he was. We are teased over and over with how he's had a rough 5 years, but we never really learn exactly what happened to him, besides moving a lot, to make him quite so angry and out of control. And then there was Rylee. Somehow, she went from a loser in middle school to one of the popular kids in high school. And she is such a conformist all of a sudden that she sheds all of her "nerdiness" and lost herself in these "friends" of hers. I kept hoping for her to grow up and be strong enough to be who she was. Instead, she's just self-righteous and "perfect" the entire time. She allows her "best friend," Mya, to be a bitch ALL. THE. TIME. She continues to hang out with the type of a-holes who are incredibly juvenile (even for high school) and do things like throwing erasers at Chase's head, making fun of his name, and even making fun of people leaving an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. These are not the types of people I could have any respect for, even when I was in high school. Don't get me wrong though. There were some very sweet and cute moments between Rylee and Chase. Some of their nostalgic moments felt a bit forced, but I liked the Rylee that I saw with Chase. I still don't understand why exactly Chase got so much grief for "hurting Rylee" when his world turned upside in middle school. He was going through hell, pulled away from everything he knew, dealing with an alcoholic father, a mother who seems more interested in controlling him, and a stepdad who is a condescending prick, and HE WAS ONLY 11 or 12 YEARS OLD! Like Rylee's maturation, I was hoping for someone to finally tell Chase that he wasn't to blame for any of that and that you couldn't blame a child for losing touch with even his best friend. But that never happened. Perhaps I'm just too old for this. Someone who is in high school reading this would likely enjoy it more. Or, I suppose, someone who didn't bristle at bullying and conforming to this extent.