Review: Searching for Beautiful by Nyrae Dawn

Searching for Beautiful by Nyrae Dawn

Author: Nyrae Dawn

Series: -

Pages: 304

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Amazon

Release date: 4^th March 2014

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Before, Brynn had a group of best friends, a loving boyfriend, a growing talent for pottery. She had a life. And after…she had none.

When Brynn lost the boyfriend who never loved her, the friends who feel she betrayed their trust, and the new life just beginning to grow inside her, she believes her future is as empty as her body. But then Christian, the boy next door, starts coming around. Playing his guitar and pushing her to create art once more. She meets some new friends at the local community center, plus even gets her dad to look her in the eye again…sort of.

But can Brynn open up her heart to truly find her life’s own beauty, when living for the after means letting go of the before?

This is a Young Adult title.

Review: 3 out of 5 stars

Searching for Beautiful was kindly provided to me by Entangled Teen and is a book about life struggles and self-discovery. Nyrae Dawn is an auto-read author for me, I tend to enjoy her complex characters and believable story-lines but unfortunately this book didn’t wow me and I wasn't able to connect on a personal or emotional level.

Sixteen year-old Brynn De Luca feels like she has lost everything – her boyfriend Jason turns into a childish creep when she tells him she is pregnant, she becomes a social outcast at school and amongst people she thought were her friends and her father has lost faith and trust in her; she is bombarded with emotions and at a complete loss with her life.

Brynn was a broken and flawed character, I would have liked to have known the ‘before’ Brynn a little more, I feel she would have been someone I would quite like but the Brynn we get to know is naïve, immature, pushes people away and continues to make silly mistakes, especially when it came to Jason who is continually callous. Brynn was really in a funk and I’m not sure if by the end of the book I actually liked her, sure she  progressed as a character but her actions and woe is me attitude to that point I didn’t find appealing to read about at all.

Brynn’s turnabout came with the arrival of an old friend, Christian Medina who I adored right from the onset; he was such a sweet, carefree guy and becomes a close confidante and friend to Brynn despite having his own difficulties. Their friendship was built on trust and their eventual romance was really endearing and I appreciated how they took their time.

I can’t say I liked a majority of the side characters; I did like Emery, she was ‘real’ and also quite broken and Christian’s mother Brenda was perfectly written.

When it comes to books about pregnancy, I don’t really connect and maybe that is because I have never been in the same situation or that I am a lot older and shook my head at a lot of Brynn’s decisions – it’s not a story-line I am fond of but Nyrae Dawn did explore this book about self-discovery, loss and heartache with compassion and kindness.

Overall, Nyrae Dawn’s writing is wonderful, she writes true to life stories that tackle some complex subject matters and despite not connecting with this particular story or the MC it was still entertaining none the less.

Thank-you to Entangled Teen for the opportunity to read and review Searching for Beautiful.

 

About the author (Goodreads): I am a compulsive reader and writer who loves YA fiction. 

I love nothing more than writing about young adults. There is something so fresh and fun about it. You can pretty much always find me with a book in my hand or open document in front of me.

I live in Southern California with my husband and two children.