I'll Meet You There

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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.

Hardcover: 400 pages

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition edition (February 3, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0805097953

ISBN-13: 978-0805097955

Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.4 x 8.7 inches

Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (138 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #371,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #103 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Social & Family Issues > Special Needs #298 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Social & Family Issues > Family > Parents #1012 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Social & Family Issues > Being a Teen

Guys, I’ve read I’LL MEET YOU THERE by Heather Demetrios twice already. It’s one of those stories that isn’t brimming with big, epic flash-bangs, but still has that impact emotionally. Does that make sense? I loved I’LL MEET YOU THERE because it’s just a story about two kids in a down-and-out town who both have baggage and demons and who have this slowly intensifying heat between them that’s founded in friendship. But, OH, when that friendship is suddenly something else? UGH MY HEART AND FEELS AND BUTTERFLIES. Sky and Josh are everything. Everything. If there were two characters that I wish were real just so that I could know for an actual fact that this amazing story was true and they were living this major happiness in real life, it would be these two. They deserve to be real and to be happy together. If this makes me a crazy person, just let me know.I’LL MEET YOU THERE is the story of two teens, Skylar and Josh, who live in a small town in California, an hour away from anything, barely a blip on the map. Sky lives in a trailer with her mother and struggles to keep her little family afloat in the aftermath of her father’s death years before. One of her jobs in between daydreaming about leaving Creek View for San Francisco in the fall to go to college, is working at the Paradise motel. A place where she used to work with the insufferable, popular, good-looking Josh Mitchell. Before he joined the Marines, that is. When Josh returns home from Afghanistan missing part of his leg and with other wounds besides, Sky and Josh slowly begin to forge a friendship and to reveal themselves to one another. Their feelings continue to grow until things in Creek View go a little pear-shaped.So I mentioned that this book gets all my love, right? All of it? Ok, good. Because I really did love everything about it. The relationship, the characters, the setting–it was all a perfect mix. I can picture Creek View in all it’s dry, desolate backwater-ness. I feel Sky’s eagerness to leave, and Josh’s uncertainty about being home. I keep thinking about all of it. I can’t get these people and these places out of my mind.I’LL MEET YOU THERE is told from two perspectives: Sky’s and Josh’s. Josh’s chapters in particular are heartbreaking. They’re told as if he was speaking directly to an old friend of his from the Marines as he tries to acclimate to returning home, something his friend can never do. Josh blames himself for his friend’s death and struggles hugely with survivor’s guilt and post-traumatic stress. But the way he talks to his friend about Skylar and what she means to him and how he doesn’t know how to approach their relationship, it gives us great insight into his character and, on a smaller scale, brief but poignant glimpses into the camaraderie he felt with the guys in his unit while he was serving.I’m just going to come out with it: I LOVE JOSHUA MITCHELL. I adore him. He’s got kind of a soft center, but not too soft. He’s still a dude. Funny, adventurous, confident. Sky is a wonderful, wonderful match for him, and he for her. She wants to look out for him and empathizes with him but doesn’t let him wallow or let him off the hook when he’s being a douche. They are exactly what the other one needs. And I loved how Josh’s disability is obviously important, but it doesn’t really define him to Skylar. Heather Demetrios crafted an amazing relationship, guys. It’s so REAL and still has that magic that all romances have.Speaking of Skylar, this poor girl. She’d probably hate me saying that because she doesn’t want anyone’s pity. She works hard to help her mom pay the bills, she’s concerned about her mother when she takes up with this bum guy Billy, she wants to make sure that her mom isn’t left hanging out to dry when she leaves for school, she’s a wonderful friend to Dylan and Chris (who I also loved), and she’s devoted to her art (she makes collages). Skylar is one of those kids that has too much on her shoulders but who handles it with aplomb. I was just so proud of her, you know?There’s basically nothing I don’t love about I’LL MEET YOU THERE, friends. Nothing. I’ve read Heather Demetrios’ book twice and the second reading had the same impact on me as the first. It’s stuck in my mind and my heart. I wish I could pick it up and reread it again right now. I can’t wait to read more of Heather Demetrios’ books. As my first book of hers, I’LL MEET YOU THERE sets the bar really high, but not just for her. For everyone. READ ITTTTT.

This book is amazing and jammed pack of so many emotions. Josh escapes Creek View by joining the Marines thinking he will never be back. After a deployment in Afghanistan where Josh loses a leg after stepping on a IED, he finds himself back in Creek View trying to figure out what the next step of life should be and how to handle losing his fellow soldiers who were his family and the loss of his leg. Skylar is wanting to escape Creek View and she has been set on the path of escaping for quite some time. When her mom loses her job and falls into a deep hole of depression, Sky seems to lose sight of getting out with the fear of her mom being left alone with no one to take care of her.Josh and Sky find themselves bonding while working at Paradise Hotel. Though they are both closed off, Sky seems to be the one person that can help Josh with PTSD and how to deal with losing his fellow soldiers that were like family to him. Will they both be able to open enough to one another and learn that love doesn't hold you back from achieving your dreams?

Heather Demetrios didn't shy away from anything in this novel, and I loved that. I loved that this was gritty and realistic and dark and sad and hopeful and passionate and genuine. Basically, I felt all the emotions and then some. I laughed, I swooned, I cried. I wanted to reach into the book and give Josh a hug, and at the same time I wanted to punch him for being a douche. If an author can do this to me, make me feel everything deeply, can break my heart and put it back together again by the end, then they've done their job.I loved the main characters. Sky was just plain awesome. On the outside, she's calm and cool and collected. But underneath, she's dying to break free and fly far, far away. She dreams of a life away from this place that sucks you dry and she continues to hold onto that even through everything. Even when she just wants to, and almost does, give up that dream. I loved how strong she was, how caring and forgiving. She hasn't had an easy life, with a mother who can't be bothered to be the parent and pain in her heart for the father she lost too early. Add in a guy who makes her question herself and who has the power to break her heart completely, and Sky spends her summer wondering if leaving is the right choice. But she's strong and determined to live the life she wants. And I'm glad, so glad that no one took that away from her.Josh's chapters slayed me. Sliced open my heart and left it bleeding in a pile of pain. They were so raw and intense and utterly harsh. They read like a diary, little snippets of how he's coping with what happened in the war and what he's feeling now that he's home. Home. A foreign concept to him, since all he can think of and all he wants is to be across the seas with his brothers. He doesn't know how to be normal. He doesn't know how to want anything different. And he certainly doesn't know how to cope with the guilt of being the survivor. Josh makes a lot of mistakes; he does some things that are hard to swallow. But all I wanted was for him to find that something that makes him want to live again. His grief and pain aren't an excuse for him; they're just there. It's his life. And he's forced to face all of it throughout this book.Their relationship was absolutely beautiful. I think they brought out the best in each other. They made each other stronger. Sure, there were moments of heartbreak and angst, anger and regret. But their romance gave them both a passion that they hadn't been feeling in years. It was sweet and genuine, the slow buildup and hesitant interactions of a first love. I loved that Josh found in Sky a reason to want to heal. And I loved that Sky felt so strongly for him that she could forgive him for hurting her. It gave them a level of maturity and depth that you don't find often in YA romance.I loved all of the secondary characters. Well, most of them. I adored Sky's two best friends, Chris and Dylan. The trio were hilarious together, and I loved how their friendship was a strong element in this story. I was hoping for a bit more when it came to Josh and his family; I would have loved more from his brother, Blake. He had so many layers, and I wish Josh had had more support from him and his family. I also adored Marge, their boss at Paradise. She definitely brought in some wisdom when the two main characters didn't know what to do. She was like another parent, and even more so because she showed them that she cared.The plot focused on Sky and Josh and their blossoming romance. It was just so realistic and genuine and felt like a real-life story. It was about two kids who had to grow up too fast in a small town that suffocated them. It was about a girl who wanted space to fly and follow her dreams. It was about a guy who lost more than his leg in a war that still haunts to this day. It was about strength and healing and life and loss. It was about two characters who found in each other a love that made everything seem possible.I'll Meet You There is the type of story that will stick with you long after you've read it. It's one of those books that will impact people, and I hope it touches many, many hearts. Because even if we don't want to think about it, the war has cost us so much and there are people out there who have given up everything for it. Stories like this need to be written, and the kids who are like Josh, who come home broken and bruised and bleeding, who don't know what it's like to dream and to hope anymore, need our help. I know this book wasn't written for the sole purpose of bringing awareness to the issue, but I'm glad it is. Because we can't forget about the Joshes of the world.

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