Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Rage to Live 
SERIES: Finding the Strength #1
AUTHOR: Shirley Anne Edwards
PUBLISHER: Harmony Ink Press
LENGTH: 210 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 29, 2018
BLURB:
Can a young woman reveal her traumatic past to the woman who wants her to release the bubbling rage inside… her rage to live?
An act of violence tore Charlie’s existence, and her family, apart. In an effort to reclaim something like the life she enjoyed before, Charlie moves in with relatives in a different state. Charlie might be damaged, but she isn’t going down without a fight. With the help of her cousins, who attend the local college, she steels herself to repeat her final year of high school. On the university campus, she meets Arielle Forest, president of a popular sorority, daughter of the dean, and bisexual. Charlie is drawn to Arielle’s sunny outlook, but she can’t banish her doubts as romance blossoms. Does Arielle know what she’s getting into with Charlie and her unhealed wounds? Will she want to deal with the complications?
When Charlie’s past catches up to her, will she find the strength to keep fighting… or succumb to the call to escape all her pain for good?
REVIEW:
Since this book is published under Harmony Ink Press, a YA imprint of Dreamspinner, it’s meant to appeal to teenage readers. When I was a teenager, I definitely would’ve been excited for a book like this. But when teens choose a book, they want a good, meaty story with likable characters, just like adult readers—they don’t want to be written at. This story feels like an adult writing at teenagers, trying to copy their language, their emotions, without really digging deep into how real teens act, think, and cope with one another.
There’s some really timely stuff going on in the story, stuff that teens (especially queer girls) will really relate to. Charlie is a rape survivor who must deal with the public fallout involving a high-profile teen rapist—a plot that could be pulled right from the headlines. But while the plot elements are timely, the teens don’t sound authentic at all. Their slang is dated, the act stiff and formal amongst one another, and they use melodramatic language straight out of a “what is my teenager thinking?” article. I just never bought it for a second.
I never got a feeling for Charlie past all the clichés. From beginning to end, her narrative consists mainly of dramatic declarations that she’s broken and damaged and crazy, that nobody can love her, that she’s not worth anything. Though her emotions of self-loathing and shame are certainly realistic, and perhaps many trauma survivors can relate, the language and storytelling don’t do them justice. She feels like a textbook example of “traumatized teen girl” rather than a fully realized character.
There are some bright spots in this story. I like the main romance—it’s sweet, but not cloying, and they get a good HEA. And the fate of Charlie’s rapist provided an interesting spin that gave some side characters a chance to shine. But this book only scratches the surface of what could’ve been a deep and moving story. It feels very surface level. Teens want to see themselves mirrored in the books they read, but in this case, the characters really missed the mark.
RATING: 
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