BOOK REVIEW: SHH! BY STACEY NASH

Hey All!!!
I just finished Shh! a NA novel by Stacey Nash. In Shh! we have a lot of ingredients that often make for a fantastic story. A smart and capable heroine, a juicy rumor gone seriously wrong, and an age when everything in life can seem all the more difficult.

Unfortunately, for me Shh! was only an okay read. While I enjoyed the issue the main character, Olivia, dealt with, I often found myself more enamored with her besties. I thoroughly enjoyed Molly and Savannah, but Olivia didn't always do it for me. While she had some fun traits, and did redeem herself in the end of the story, I felt she spent way too much time wallowing.

I'm not saying she didn't have reason to feel sorry for herself. Having an ex breakup with you for nightly masturbating while next to him is a hard rumor to fight. I'm sure most of us would want to wallow. And I do feel the author did a great job of showing the embarrassment that comes with that...but it went on a bit too long for my taste. And, for me, I read books to escape from that sort of thing, not to put myself into those type of feelings.

I also didn't feel Olivia did anything for much of the book - outside of wallow. Here she is, dealing with a huge rumor, having people talking behind her back, and guys treating her like crap, and not until the very end of the book did she think to investigate if it were true or to get some help? I can see how, at first, she most likely thought it was a mean joke, but after the second witness came forward and she recognized it might have some truth to it, it was time for some action...and I didn't feel I got that from her.

Most of this story felt like an internal dialogue from Olivia's point of view on how her life was falling apart, how disappointed her parents would be, and how she was falling for Logan, but was afraid that he would find out about her "disorder". I don't feel that Olive took her life into her own hands until her friends and Logan forced her to do it. And that didn't sit well with me.

Don't get me wrong, the book wasn't all bad. It was a quick and easy read, with a pretty cool topic, and with many interesting characters. I think it will be a great read for many, but just didn't do it for me *shrug*.

Overall, I give Shh! 3 stars!!!

Happy reading and writing!