GUEST REVIEW: Delinquents by The Elizabeths

Long awaited sequel to Innocents (Dusty #1) has been released today. 

Here is Marta's spectacular review.

Delinquents (Dusty #2)

Written by The Elizabeths

Release date: October 23rd

Purchase: Amazon / B&N

Synopsis:

The innocent girl with a delinquent heart has to live with her bad choices. Secret hope and hurt feel like falling while she learns how to breathe again, but there's still freedom in trouble. 

The runaway with blacked-out eyes is losing his grip. Crushing two hearts in one fist, his addiction bends rules and breaks deals, but the boy born for bliss isn't going anywhere without a fight. 

Love is knowing they should stay away, but love is illogical at best. 

She's afraid to let go. 

He won't let her. 

This is how silliness and foolishness grow up. 

Here, forever is a lie.

Marta's * 5 STARS * Review:

I lift my own hood from the sweater love gave me years ago. The cotton is worn thin, and Castor is faded on the back, but it doesn’t mean any less to me. And when I’m in bed and Thomas is out doing whatever it is that he does, it’s all I have to remind myself that he wasn’t always this way. There was a time when we were innocent and genuine, and young, stupid in love.

I know I have made many people jealous by getting to read this ARC and I’m happy to tell you that the wait is almost over. Just a few more days and you’ll get to experience heartache, pain, hurt and regret too. Lucia reviewed Innocents for you guys, and here I am with its sequel. Lucia and I complement each other like that. My favorite part of this story has always been the second half, because it killed me a million times over, and when something hurts so deep and so real, I cannot give it anything less than 5 stars.

I’m going to start off by saying that reviewing a book that was co-written is very hard. Co-writing requires compromises and I didn’t like some of them. Some of the writing really confused me. It’s sentences like “All my heart wants finds my eyes for a single, unsubstantial second.” that had me rereading it three times until I got what it was saying that threw me off. And “Black bikini-bottomed and hot pink-topped, suntanned and platinum blond leaves her clothes and everything else behind as she makes her way to the one with bare eyes”. Sometimes less is more and I don’t think the overuse of words and descriptions helps the story flow. Also, to avoid any confusion, I feel like I need to address this to all of you who haven’t read the fanfiction: chapter 55 is from Bliss’s heart’s point of view. In case you were wondering. It isn’t marked, so you’ll probably be spending the entire chapter wondering who the hell is talking. I’m here to tell you it’s her heart. I wasn’t a fan of that chapter either, I had a really hard time trying to relate to a heart and translating its thoughts in what it means for Dusty and Bliss.

Despite the things I mentioned above, I still love this book. I’ve loved it as a fanfiction and I still love it. The authors seem to have cut out a lot from the beginning of the fanfiction, so Innocents was heavily edited, but I think the fanfiction readers will be happy to hear that the second half (Delinquents) has been preserved for the most part. Which is a good thing, because it was the most raw and painful part. In order to get the best experience, I think it's best to read both books in a row. I feel like the impact will be bigger that way, so if you have already read Innocents I'd recommend rereading. By the end of Innocents, we know that Dusty started doing coke, but it isn’t until you’re reading Delinquents that you realize just how deep in he actually is.

Delinquents is all of their bad choices, their mistakes, their lies and their hurt. Delinquents is all of the pain, the hopelessness and longing.

Love’s sheltered here, but she’s my shelter, and knowing you’d die without someone isn’t romantic. But I would.

Delinquents is keeping a secret, because the truth is too ugly to tell.

The truth is not easy. My truth: I love a lost cause. I love a failure, and I lost myself in him when I was nine years old.

But the truth is all you have and you’ll bleed and die for it.

I place my hands on the sides of his cool face and whisper, “Tell me a secret.” His body relaxes.“I don’t want to be a secret anymore, baby.”This is the part where I should tell him, “It’s too late. We’re too wrong.” Instead, I say softly, “Do you really wish you could hate me?”

Delinquents is loving a drug addict and knowing you shouldn’t, but knowing you can’t stop.

I love a boy who can’t get his shit together, but without him I can’t breathe.

I bet you never thought you’d miss the old days where their biggest problem was Bliss overhearing bathroom conversations. I bet you never thought it could get worse than that. But while reading Delinquents I found myself crying just reminiscing about those days.

I miss cream soda floats and snow boots that saved the world. I miss being on the phone with her talking about nothing at all. I miss the times when she melted over my touches simply because she loved me – only because she loved me.

Because somewhere along the line, innocence was lost and so were they. Bliss and Dusty never really had a good foundation. Their love has always hurt in some way or another, but there was a time when the good overruled the bad, and now I’m just not sure that it does anymore.

You want me to hold your hand while you kill us both? What the fuck am I supposed to do, Thomas?

Bliss was just a baby, too small to carry Dusty’s weight, but it didn’t stop him from stacking it on her shoulders. And as the years passed, Bliss grew stronger out of necessity and more bitter too. But Dusty is all she knows and Bliss is all he can feel.

I've been lit through each I love you, spun through each touch, and drunk-wasted through each don't ever leave me. All the affection I've ever shown this girl has been habit-stained and guilty. She never had a chance against a monster like me.

I’ve cried, because this love is a struggle and it’s never-ending. I’ve cried, because the hopelessness of this situation choked me. I’ve cried, because this is just so raw and so real. It’s kids growing up, following the wrong path and crashing face first to the ground. It’s thinking youth lasts forever and nothing matters but you and I. It's I don't give a fuck and desperately needing to keep not giving a fuck. It’s needing coke to be able to handle what you really need. It’s loving someone so much that you sacrifice yourself for that love. And it’s knowing you will hold his hand while he kills you both, because that’s your deal.

I’m just a girl with a broken heart, half-alive. Without him, that’s my deal.