Eyes Turned Skyward - Book Review

By Rebecca Yarros

Synopsis

Life’s too short to play it safe…

Since her sister’s death, twenty-year-old Paisley Donovan, who shares her sister’s heart condition, is treated like delicate glass by her parents. But nothing will stop her from completing her Bucket List—even if it kills her. And it almost does, until Jagger Bateman pulls her from the ocean and breathes more than air into her lungs—he sets her soul on fire.

Jagger is enrolled in the country’s toughest flight school. He’s wickedly hot, reckless, and perfect for a girl looking to live life to the fullest. Except that Paisley is the commanding general’s daughter, and her boyfriend is Jagger’s biggest rival. Now Paisley must decide just how much to risk for a guy who makes her heart pound a little too hard.

They’re flying through dangerous territory—and one wrong move could make them crash and burn…

Review

Oh! My! God! EYES TURNED SKYWARD. What can I say other than it’s another fantastic and emotional read from Rebecca Yarros.

EYES TURNED SKYWARD is the story of Paisley and Jagger. Paisley lost her older sister to an undiagnosed heart condition, a genetic condition that Paisley shares. Since then her parents have effectively wrapped her in bubble wrap, doing anything they can to make sure she doesn’t suffer the same fate. But then, what’s life if you can’t live it?

Sneaking off to Florida with her best friend, she’s rescued by Mr California, aka Jagger. After taking her to a clinic to make sure she’s ok, both come to the realisation that they’ll never see each other again and reluctantly part ways. But Fate has other plans: Jagger is attending flight school at Fort Rucker; Paisley is the commanding general’s daughter; and her boyfriend is Jagger’s biggest rival. Paisley can’t deny (although she sure does try) her attraction to Jagger, and Jagger decides he doesn’t care that she has a boyfriend. She will be his. Both will risk their future and their hearts, one more so than the other.

I loved Paisley and Jagger: Paisley for her strength, strong will and sense of right and wrong; and Jagger for his loyalty, kindness and sense of humour. Of course it doesn’t hurt that he’s smokin’ hot, great in bed and out of it and so goddamn sweet.

“I know you from your soul to your skin. Just being friends with you…I’ve never been more intimate with a woman, and that includes every girl I’ve ever had sex with.”

And this little gem had me laughing so much, only because Paisley soooo didn’t want to admit her feelings.

“I love him so stupid much.”

So there’s a funny story about this book. I was on Amazon looking over my recommended reads when EYES TURNED SKYWARD popped up in my viewer. I read the synopsis for this and my initial thought was “Sounds ok, but I think I’ll wait a while before I buy this one.”. About two weeks later I was going through my iPad looking for my favourite books, to find their authors and see if they had anything recently released or soon to be released. When I realised that this book was from the same author that brought me FULL MEASURES, (a book that had me crying from the beginning for like…AN HOUR!) I knew I had to have it and bought it immediately.

Rebecca, I’ve committed your name to memory, so rest assured when I see it on the front cover, it’s going straight into my To Be Read collection.

So there’s just a couple of things to be mindful of:

1 If you’re going to read this book, please have tissues nearby. You’ll probably need them.
2 Jagger was introduced in FULL MEASURES, and there are characters from that book mentioned in this book. That being said, you can read this as a stand-alone, so you don’t have to rush out and read FULL MEASURES first. But my personal recommendation is to read FULL MEASURESanyway. It’s an amazing and emotional read, so well written you wouldn’t believe it was her debut novel. Tissues will definitely be required for that one. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“You are as much a part of me as my own heart, and it doesn’t beat without you.”