Almost

Title: Almost
Author: Anne Eliot
Genre: YA
Rating: 5/5
Cover: 4/10


I need to talk about the awesome that is this book. Fans of Beautiful Disaster (Jamie McGuire), Slammed (Colleen Hoover), Barely Breathing (Rebecca Donovan) and Thoughtless (S. C. Stephens), you're in for a treat!
Buckle up boys & girls, because Jess's past isn't pretty... but she doesn't remember it. At least, almost nothing of it. Not the night she revisits every time she falls alseep during dark hours, and not how what was meant to be rape was reduced to almost-rape. Everything about her life is almost. Almost remembered. Almost forgotten. Almost raped. Almost fine. Almost better. Almost dating...

It has many references to Pride & Prejudice, Titanic, Romeo & Juliet, and a few to Twilight. Because we all love popular references, and you know it.
But awesome references to gain (or lose... ahem) cookie points, Almost is a heart-wrenching tale of a teenage girl struggling to come to terms with the trauma in her past, while trying to convince her overbearing parents that she isn't made of glass, getting her younger sister to stop acting like the older sister for once, and falling in love - all at once. Oh, and she needs to fill in college applications, on the off chance that she can convince the parental entities that she's ready to move on - which is where Gray Porter comes in. Tall, dark and handsome with killer green eyes, he seems immune to Jess's death stares and not-so-subtle back-off hints. With an easy smile and the butterflies he gives her, she figures he'd be an okay candidate for number 3 on the list her sister made for her on How To Be Normal. #3 is getting a boyfriend. After some fast-talking and involuntary guilt-tripping, she gets Gray to go along with her plan... not knowing that Gray knows her deepest secrets, or that he's had a crush on her since freshman year, back when she was still a normal girl...

Almost is told in first person by both Gray and Jess, which I loved. Getting simultaneous intel inside both of their heads was wonderful. And let it be said - I love Gray Porter. And I want one of those BBB bumper stickers for myself! ;)