Review: Searching for Beautiful by Nyrae Dawn
Warning: This book contains all sorts of feels. I am not even lying when I say that either, this book is a roller coaster of grief and loss, love and heartbreak, rekindling and snuffing out of flame. It is just all over the place with what it tackles revolving around one character. At the end of the day, however, what I found out was that Searching for Beautiful may have been a coming of age story about a 16 year old girl, but it was more about the relationships we have and make during those years and how they evolve when life throws you curve balls.
Brynn is a tough character to like. Unless you have been through some of the stuff she is dealing with, I think people will see her as a whiny dumb teenager that makes HORRIBLE life choices and really needs to get a clue. I can see where that argument comes from, however, I think if people took a second to realize that she is 16 and what kind of decisions we all made at that age maybe some of her flaws can be redeemed. For example, the pregnancy. I totally understand that she dropped the ball here in a world were protection is abundantly available and she had all these hopes that Jason was going to take that news well.....but they were certainly lofty ones. If she didn't grow from that experience, I would be on the side of how can dumb can she be, but she did grow and she learned her lesson and developed a beautiful relationship from that and the other tragedy that befalls her. I always look for growth in a character and Brynn succeeds in that regard.
Christian is the pillar of that growth for me in this story. He is ultimately her rock, albeit a cracked rock, but he really gives her the love and support she needs in the moment. It also allows her to heal and then return said love to him and really make the romance blossom as we move through the story. She gains some relationships in the story and also restructures some that already exist, like the one with her father, making her more of a grounded person by the end of the book and I think I was able to relate better to her at the end versus the beginning. I encourage you to give Brynn a shot and not give up at the beginning because what she has in store for you, might just make your heart flutter in the end.
