Book Review: Finding the Cure by Cassandra Giovanni

Title: Finding the Cure
Author: Cassandra Giovanni
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: June 18, 2015 by Show n’ot Tell Publishing

Ellie Abela’s life has been anything but easy. Tragedy follows her where ever she goes, and she’s been a lot of places. At twenty she’s lived in over ten different states, all because of her dad’s career in medical research. His career is just another list of the causes of tragedies in El’s life. He’s dying, and with every breath he takes closer to Heaven, Ellie dies a little bit inside too.

At twelve she lost her mom in a drunk driving accident, and in a matter of months she fears she’ll lose the last person she has in the world to cancer.

While Ellie’s life has been rife with sadness, Trent Wentworth’s has been a challenge. A drug-addicted mom and a dead-beat dad meant at twenty three he was the adoptive father of his two year old sister. Now at twenty five he’s working his way up the corporate ladder and a struggling single parent.

Each is searching for a cure to the things in their lives dragging them down.

Not all cures are black and white; not all cures save us–and sometimes saving isn’t what we need. Sometimes we just need to realize how lucky we are to be alive, at least for this moment.

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Reviewed by: Sara

In a Nutshell: Do you need a good cry? This book tried to kill me by drowning me in my own tears.

What I Liked: I almost gave up on this book. It seemed to move so slowly and there were 65 chapters(!).

However, after having finished the book I really appreciate the way the author used the story's pacing to describe how Ellie's life was moving as she dealt with her father's disease. What started slow and seemingly full of mundane daily activities began to run at breakneck speed towards the inevitable conclusion of Ellie's dad's illness.

Suddenly, in our rush to experience everything, I felt we pushed fast forward on Dad's life. The feeling sunk inside me as I watched Dad looking up at my painting of Mom's photograph, now on display in a local restaurant and gallery. His arm locked in mine, and beneath the soft sweater I could feel he was too thin. I could see the illness eating him away, and the smile on my face as I laughed with him seemed external to the screaming inside of me. I was screaming for everything to just stop.

Please stop!

What Else I Liked: I really liked the pacing of Ellie and Trent's relationship.

It would have been super easy for Finding the Cure to be like many other books and have Ellie and Trent share some insta-love and angsty bedroom time, but that wouldn't have made any sense to who they were as characters. Both Ellie and Trent are wise beyond their years, both have lived through and are living through difficult times, and both are busy people, not prone to impulsiveness. Insta-love was never in the cards for these two and I'm glad the author stuck with that.

What I Didn't Like: Allie. Child characters are tricky and usually I hate them. Allie was a bizarre-o mix of naive little girl, overly insightful for her age and precocious tag-a-long. She was more or less a plot device to explain why Trent was so mature and responsible. Maybe it's just me, but kid characters, like Allie, never really feel authentic to me.

Overview: Not your average New Adult novel;  well paced and heart-wrenching. Keep your Kleenex handy .

Sara’s Rating: