Every Sunday Savannah Ray gets an email from her dead dad. She doesn’t know how the emails work but she’s finally ready to start looking for answers. To find those answers she has to go to the one place she swore she’d never set foot in after he died—Haunted Valley, the amusement park. Once there and on the hunt for answers she is distracted by the charming Dallas and falls hard for him. When the answers she finds aren’t what she expected and Dallas betrays her, Savannah must make a choice—succumb to the insanity that destroyed her father or find the strength to rise above it.
Bittersweet has me torn, because the writing was heartbreaking and it dealt with a lot of issues, albeit not in entirely the best way, however the main character (Savannah) was whiny - also she is described as nothing like the blonde, innocent looking girl on the cover. Therefore, as much as I loved Loth's writing and definitely would read anything else she writes, I didn't exactly rate Bittersweet.
Savannah was an extremely annoying character - sure, she has a bad life and her Dad is dead and her mum is awful and she gets bullied, but she doesn't make life easier for her, she is rude and mean and rejects anyone who tries to get close to her, I hate characters that bemoan their life and don't make any efforts to change it. Then of course there is the obligatory troubled but overly-cheery best friend (Julia) that Savannah opens up to and handsome-older-desired boy Dallas (Dallas and Savannah, I see what you did there!) who gets under Savannah's skin and then betrays her but maybe it was a misunderstanding! Because of course the emo girl is undeniable but betrayable. Ugh.
But as I said, I did actually enjoy this book for the writing - sure there were issues, mainly that I felt I spent so long learning about the mechanics of the rides and that was valuable page space that could have been dedicated to more back story, and that the end, whilst emotional did seem abrupt to me - I did find that the dialogue flowed well and the writing style was absorbing. Loth is definitely a talented writer, but I think she needs to think more about back story and building realistic, relatable characters.
Overall, whilst I did enjoy Bittersweet to a point, I did feel that it had too many flaws to really be recommended, so I wouldn't shout about it.
Book released 21st March 2015
Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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