Review: Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair

Title: Leap of Faith
Author: Jamie Blair
Release Date: September 3rd, 2013
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

Can true love be built on lies? A teen on the run seeks relief and redemption in this gripping, romantic read.

Leah Kurtz has finally found a place to call home, a town where she and baby Addy can live in peace, far from the drug-infested place she grew up. Chris is one of the best parts of her new life, the only person who’s ever made her feel safe. And now that she’s found him, there’s no way she can tell the truth:

Her real name is Faith, not Leah. She’s seventeen, not nineteen. And the baby isn’t hers—Faith kidnapped her.

Faith’s history catches up with her when a cop starts asking questions and Chris’s aunt spots her picture in the newspaper. She knows it’s time to run again, but if Faith leaves, she’ll lose Chris. If Chris is in love with a lie, though, did Faith ever really have him in the first place?

"Once you name it, it's yours. 

Someone said that once.

I don't remember who, but it's true. I named her. She's mine."

As some of you might know, I've been in a reading slump, reading bad book after bad book. I was way past my breaking point. I had had enough of reading books that didn't love me back so I picked this one up. I bought it a while ago and was waiting for the 'right time' to read it, which was now, because otherwise I would just start screaming at everyone (I was already half way there, being pissed at everything). And this book was great. It was heart-wrenchingly beautiful and though it wasn't perfect it touched me in a way no book has in (what seems like) a long long long time. 

I read this within 2.5 hours, I COULDN'T STOP!! I needed to know how this would end. I am not even sure how to put everything into words because I am still shocked by the beauty of this book.

Faith has never been particularly brave and has a rather low self-esteem. Her older sister is graduating soon and then she'll be left in the hell-hole all alone. She doesn't think she'll make it out though because she isn't particularly smart and cannot be athletic (like her sister) because she has asthma. It isn't until her mom is having a baby (which she is being paid to have might I mention) that something changes inside Faith. She needs to save the baby from having the kind of crappy life she had and so little by little, subconsciously, she starts planning and the day the baby is born she runs away. 

You cannot but help empathize with her because she doesn't really know anything about babies but she really wants to keep Addy. She'll do anything to keep her safe yet she isn't sure if she made the right decision because what if she cannot sustain the two of them? What IF? 

The way the author portrays the whole situation seems realistic for me. Of course I realize I probably won't be the best judge of that but still. Raising a baby is hard, it has it's ups and downs. 

Faith's interaction with the baby is also really great. She can come off as over-protective but who wouldn't expect her to be? She makes stupid decisions but you really cannot expect her not to seeing the kind of situation she is in. I loved seeing her fall more in love with the baby each day despite all the hard-ships. It really goes to show it really doesn't matter who the birth mother is. 

The romance is actually not the highlight of the book for me because really this is Faith's story, no one elses. I loved Chris but Faith really was the highlight of this book. Their romance is great. It isn't cliched and it's sweet and realistic in some ways. I'll admit to thinking it had a rather insta like feel to it but that really can be justified. When no one has really ever been kind to you in your life or treated you with respect, you're bound to be fascinated with someone who does (and it helps that he is cute ;)). It doesn't hurt that she is realistic about the fact that things won't be so easy for the two of them seeing that she is keeping so many secrets.

My main problem with the story was that there were some what I'll call time gaps. It went by too fast (not in a good way), there just seemed to be some things that didn't connect as well as I would have liked, holes that could have been filled. 

The ending is somewhat open which might bother some people but because I am rather optimistic, I already imagine everything is going to work out.

In the end this was an excellent debut and the author shows a lot of promise. I am definitely reading whatever else Jamie is going to put out.

I recommend this book to people who love emotional contemporary books.