Almost-- Anne Elliot

Now, I usually do not tend to go for the YA novels, as most of the time, the content is really concentrated on teens and their issues. Which, let's be honest- I am not a teen, and haven't had any interest in teen drama in years, lol. That being said, Almost had been on my TBR list for well over a year and it just happened to have been put on sale one day at Amazon, so I thought- WTH, let's do this. Kinda glad I did, I gotta say. This one is about Jess and Gray, two teens in their senior year in high school, both competing for an internship at a techy geek company in town that they both seem to love. At least that is how we are introduced to them. However, they have history long before this we soon find out. Jess apparently went to a party as a freshmen years prior, having snuck out of her house to do so, and got drunk and was almost raped by a fellow student. Hence the title, Almost. Gray, being the knight in shining armor that he is, just happened to show up at the right time and stop it from happening, completely unbeknownst to Jess. She seriously has no clue that he saved her. Oh to top it all off- this poor boy has pined for her since the first time he saw her their freshmen year. Skip ahead four years, and here they are, both wanting the internship- each for completely different reasons. He for financial ones (as it a paid internship) and she for personal ones (her parents are reluctant to let her go off to college until she proves that she has moved on from her incident). Jess is desperate to show her parents that she is "better", even though she still has nightmares and has not healed from her experience at all- therefore, she strikes up a deal with Gray to have him be her pretend boyfriend, thus showing her parents that she has a life. In exchange for it, she lets him take the money from the internship that they both get, all the while, never knowing that he knows all about her horrible past and is intent on protecting her no matter what. This really is a great heartwarming story about young love, dealing with both the beauty and the pain that it involves. I would recommend it and would rate it 4 stars.