Secret Life by Bria Quinlan

Source: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Rachel Wells is a liar—big time. No one outside her family knows about the panic attacks or meds, the weekly therapy drive-bys or the “safe” outfit. If she could hide it all from her string of ex-boyfriends and her best friend Amy, then why should anything change? But, when the one guy as messed up as she is blackmails her into helping him, life goes from closely restrained to out of control.

Sometimes choosing between sanity and love is the craziest thing of all.

Can we just take a moment. Just one moment to bask in the freaking awesomeness that was this book. The unexpected depth, the smarts, the everything that this was. Wow. I'm in shock. Not the same shock that I wrote about a couple of days ago when things were happening in a book that I didn't understand. I'm in shock because this was so good. Not only was this so good but it was freaking quality. I want to cry with how happy I am. FINALLY. Finally an author doesn't treat me like I'm dumb. Finally an authour freaking lets you into the character's mind so you can feel their emotions and think their thoughts along with them. And actually understand why they feel the way they feel instead of just being told to understand them. FINALLY somebody has stopped manufacturing drama to carry a book along. Finally we don't get the hot girl miraculously fixing a man whore. Finally I don't get told how broken somebody is but actually shown. We get to live broken with them. But in an oh so real, and not at all patronising, manipulative way. Yes we get this. We get depth and layers and realness. We get characters that realise they are no good for each other and actually STEP AWAY!!!!!!! AND FREAKING HEAL ON THEIR OWN BEFORE COMING TOGETHER. I cannot deal with how happy I am that I read this. At first I thought it was going to be good but typical you know? But this book started and then just got better and better and better until at the end my cheeks hurt because I was smiling so much. I could say so much more. SO much more. But I wont.

In short: I loved it. 

Notes: Clean. Was gonna be 4 stars but the last third of the book kicked it up to 4.5. Also can we take a second to appreciate the awesomeness that was Rachel's mother and Ben!