Review: But I Love Him

Title: But I Love Him
Author: Amanda Grace (Pseudonym), Mandy Hubbard
Source: Library Copy
Age Level: Young Adult
My Rating: 5 out of 5
Goodreads:
Tonight was so much worse than anything before it. Tonight he didn't stop after the first slap.

At the beginning of senior year, Ann was a smiling, straight-A student and track star with friends and a future. Then she met a haunted young man named Connor. Only she can heal his emotional scars; only he could make her feel so loved — and needed. Ann can't recall the pivotal moment it all changed, when she surrendered everything to be with him, but by graduation, her life has become a dangerous high wire act. Just one mistake could trigger Connor's rage, a senseless storm of cruel words and violence damaging everything — and everyone — in its path. 

This evocative slideshow of flashbacks reveals a heartbreaking story of love gone terribly wrong.

Review:
This is such a different book. I have read several books about relationships and abusive boyfriends. One I read this year was Dreamland by Sarah Dessen. Dreamland was a typical abusive relationship book. Starts out with a cute relationship and builds up into the abuse. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this type of book but it is a relief to read something different. But I Love Him starts off with the climax of the abuse one year into the relationship. From there it back tracks all the way to the first day when Ann and Connor first meet.

Because Ann and Connor's relationship is told backwards, we come to understand why it is so difficult for Ann to leave Connor. We get a better perspective of how she fell so deeply in love with him and felt like she had to protect him. The book starts out with the difficult moments but slowly goes onto the sweeter, better parts of the relationship, like their first dates.

All the characters in the book are developed through their relationship with Ann. There is the relationship with her mother, her best friend, her guy friend and of course Connor. We get to know more about Ann as the book develops and we get to see her life before Connor became the center of it.

I really liked this book. It was so different form the format of all other books. So different in fact, that I wasn't sure how I would feel about it but ended up not being able to put it down. This book was so intriguing that while I was at the dentist I saw my guy cousin pick it up and start reading it, after that, he kept asking me what was happening when I was reading it. So, Mandy Hubbard? This book? Just plain awesome. Go pick it up now!! :)