What I Thought Was True Review

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Title: What I Thought Was True

Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick

Series: None

Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: April 15 2014

Genre: Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 422

Format: Hardback

goodreads

Gwen Castle has never so badly wanted to say good-bye to her island home till now: the summer her Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, takes a job there as the local yard boy. He's a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of fishermen and housecleaners who keep the island's summer people happy. Gwen worries a life of cleaning houses will be her fate too, but just when it looks like she'll never escape her past—or the island—Gwen's dad gives her some shocking advice. Sparks fly and secret histories unspool as Gwen spends a gorgeous, restless summer struggling to resolve what she thought was true—about the place she lives, the people she loves, and even herself—with what really is.

A magnetic, push-you-pull-me romance with depth, this is for fans of Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, and Deb Caletti.

It’s hard to be a fan of authors like Sarah Dessen or Jenny Han, or even Huntley Fitzpatrick if you don’t on some degree love summer romances. My Life Next Door, another romance by Fitzpatrick, detailed what it was like to love a life you could never have. What I Thought Was True explains the difference between what we think are facts, and what things are really like.

Both are incredibly intriguing romances worth finishing in one sitting.

Gwen Castle doesn’t live in a million dollar mansion. She doesn’t go to a posh private school or drive a sports car. No. She works at her dad’s burger shop. She helps her mom pay the bills when it’s a little too hard to make ends meet. In other words, she is nothing like Cassidy Somers a.k.a The Boy That Never Should’ve Happened. He comes from a life of Harvard and bottomless bank accounts, while she comes from Portuguese fishermen and housekeepers. They come from different worlds. They don’t belong together. But if that’s true, why is it so hard to keep away from him? When Cassidy gets hired as a lawn boy in the same neighborhood Gwen takes a job taking care of the rich Mrs. Ellington, she runs into him more than she would like. A lot more than she would like.

One thing that is hard to find in other books that this one seems to capture perfectly is the relationships. You can’t really find another summer romance with the intense, truthful, and incredibly accurate relationships this one has. The connection between the friends in the story was perfect. The romance was topsy turvy and real. The thing most book authors seem to forget is that no relationship ever happens smoothly and without kinks. And, even if they did, they would be boring and would go nowhere. I mean, who wants a boring relationship?  The story itself also brought something worth having. The subplots, minor romances, and minor characters were almost as interesting as the main ones. Em, Gwen’s little, not-quite-autistic, different-than-everyone-else brother was my favorite character, and not to mention, essential to this book’s charm. And let’s not forget Cass. Cassidy Somers. Ahh….Don’t you just love the characters that remind you that the boy you are looking for in real life doesn’t actually exist? I mean, really. Reading books has caused my standards in men to skyrocket. I really don’t think anyone will compare.

What I didn’t like was Fitzpatrick doesn’t seem to have an understanding on the emotional turmoil that relationships and love brings. You’d think boys and girls bounce back from relationships like they were made from rubber. And that just doesn’t happen.

In the end, I liked this book. It was nothing like the light summer read that I was expecting, but it was still good. One thing I learned: we don’t always have a smooth ride on the road of love, and we don’t always travel it with Prince himself, but, then again, why would you want it any other way? Besides, what fun are relationships without a little drama?