Tear (Seaside #1) Review

Book Review

June 23, 2013

Tear (Seaside #1)

by: Rachel Van Dyken

3.5 Stars ★★★☆

Blurb ~ Life as a teenager is never easy. But for Natalee Murray, things have just gotten way more difficult. Bored with life, she can't wait to graduate high school and get out of town, especially considering the famous band members from AD2 suddenly start attending her school, making her once boring life, absolutely insane.

It starts with a pen. A single brush of fingers, and she is captivated.

But Alec and Demetri have a dark secret, one that could shatter their reputations and Natalee's heart. What do you do when one guy paints your life with color while the other infuses your soul with passion? How do you choose when your heart is divided?

Review 

Spoilers Ahead… You’ve been Warned!!!

I’m a huge Rachel Van Dyken fan and I’ll try and keep this as simple as possible. Tear is certainly not her best piece of work. This was the second time I read the story and though I can admit it was okay there were many things about it I did not like. 

Natalee is a loner, who likes to watch life from the sidelines, not looking to be the center of attention or the most popular girl in school. When she manages to continually bump into some dark and dreamy new guy at school she can’t help but to curse her luck. When she learns that he’s (Alec) a member of AD2, a famous band he’s in with his brother, Natalee has no plans to be his BFF. Unfortunately for her Dimitri, Alec’s brother has other plans in mind and somehow the three of them become a solid friend unit. Over time Natalee learns the real reason the guys are in town and considering they are living next door and seeing her mother (a shrink), her normal life gets turned upside down. 

Now what I didn’t like about the story the most was Natalee’s deterioration. And by this I mean how strong and stable she was in the beginning that somewhere fell flat. Natalee likes Alec, she knows this and us readers know this. Demetri is a great friend to her, but we can all see, he’s not the most stable tool in the shed. But for some unknown reason, when Demetri admits to wanting her, all she can focus on is how he is and how Alec won’t want her so she basically settles for Demetri. Somewhere along the way, Natalee loses herself and I was extremely unhappy. Especially, because her newfound relationship is clearly going to cause some issues between the brothers, something Natalee barely thinks about. 

At times it’s easy to feel for her though, especially in regards to her home life. Basically she is like a stranger living in her parents’ house. They are both busy professionals working all the time and leaving her on her own. Natalee obviously feels the scorn of this and unlike most kids her age does not act out but instead sort of hides away. Until Alec and Demetri that is. It was odd because you could easily relate to her and since we don’t even see her father until 89% in when he makes a brief appearance you could understand her solitary life at school and desire to be free of small town Seaside.

Demetri needs all the help he can get and I felt like Natalee only messed up his progress more. I mean he’s a teenage celebrity with more money and girls than he can ever deal with. His and Alec’s childhood has not be peaches and cream, and the two have gone through many life-altering moments and they just need a bit of normal for a change. Natalee gives them that in the beginning but when she knows she shouldn’t be with Demetri and she is, everyone’s lives are thrown into the cauldron.

Demetri has a way about him, that even though he’s a fictional character you get sucked into his and Alec’s story. Being in the limelight at such a young age and having so much pressure forced on you cannot be easy. Most of the time, Demetri had me feeling anxious and jittery, just knowing that at some time, everything was getting ready to blow up. 

“I knew without a doubt that Alec would be smoldering in my direction, and Demetri was fortunate enough to be the type of guy that had every STD listed and probably some of them that weren’t. The guy was known for his conquests… He was surrounded by at least twenty girls, each of them touching his arm or shoulder, even his butt. Disgusting. And that was the reason I was not sitting with him. I wasn’t them.” – Natalee

I will eventually be reading the rest of the books in the series, but for now, this one has to stew. Most characters in novels grow into better people, and learn from their mistakes. Natalee started off so strong and brave with a semi-solid plan for her life and somewhere along the way she changed and lost who she was. I am looking forward to meeting the real Demetri when he’s not numbing his pain. Both brothers are easy to like, even with all their baggage and I was glad Natalee was not responsible for ruining their relationship.

This quote can easily sum up why I did not, overall, like this story, “I would never have Alec. But Demetri. He needed me, and a part of me craves that feeling. To be needed, wanted. I’d never experienced anything like it before.”-Natalee

HAPPY READING!!!