Book Review – Low by Mary Elizabeth

Low

*claps claps and claps some more!!!!!!!!* 😀 😀 😀 BRAVO Mary Elizabeth. BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s no wonder you’re so popular!! You are an exciting author!! This was the first book I have read by you, and you have taken me on the most exhilarating thrill-rides that I have been on in… shooooooooot…. I dunno. Months? A year? Years?

This was one of most captivating, engrossing, thrilling, unputdownable reads that I’ve read in a LONG time! I found myself rocking back and forth (<— seriously… I should have recorded it, but that would have been hard… I need a tripod). I had so much energy that needed a release so all I could do was rock back and forth as the whole thing culminated into that fantastic ending. I was cheering, tears welling up in my eyes, and loving every single moment of LOVING THE BAD GUYS!!!!!!

But… are they really bad guys? Maybe. Maybe not. Absolutely YES. And maybe… not so much. 😉 I guess it depends on which side of the law (or of this sweet, crazy love story) you’re on.

Circumstantial bad guys, but with hearts of gold. With some serious bad luck at times (sad 🙁 ), but great luck too. Moments in life with no way out, no way up, and too far gone. The whole…  “I have nothing left to lose so let’s go balls to the wall!” This was THAT RIDE.

Maryse: I’m in K-N-O-T-S!!!! I’m reading an ARC of Low. *whooo* I wanted something thrilling, and I got it. Hooked me right from the start. YAY ME!!
Okay so… they’re practically starving & trying to make a go at life together but his prison record makes it hard to get a job, and she’s trying to keep up her college course and HER jobs… so what they end up doing has my stomach in KNOTS right now. KNOTS.

Dani Hart I read it last week —-> In love! But Mary Elizabeth never disappoints! Oh, and just wait for the last scene. #chills

Maryse: I LOVE chills!!!

E.k. Blair: Maryse LOW is amazing! OMG! Loved it!  I couldn’t stop! It was a wild ride! So happy you’re reading and enjoying!

Maryse: I AM SO INTO THIS!!! 🙂

Sadie: I preordered this! Dusty was a wild ride too.

Maryse: This is the first book I’ve read by this author… she’s good. DAMN GOOD.

Maryse: 97 %… other than stopping to eat and bathroom breaks, I have been reading non-stop. SO GOOD. I’m scared!!!!! LOL!!! I’m seriously rocking back and forth

Maryse: *claps*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES YES YES!!!!!!! PERFECT! 5 STARS!!!! *sigh* Sooooooo happy. 😀 It’s funny the things that make me happy… 😉

So what’s it about?

Low and Poe (tee hee!!! I just realized that… really he’s Lowen and she’s Poesy) have been dating for a long time. “New adults” in love. Sweet sweetness. She’s from a fairly well-to-do family that basically ignores yet controls her, and he’s from a very poor family (his mother and sister, with his father in prison for life), and Low has been in and out of trouble…

My crimes have never been victimless, but as a kid from the hood, when welfare wasn’t enough, I did what I had to do to help my family get by.

but Low and Poe simply can’t live without the other. Unconditional love.

And when he’s caught stealing bread and peanut butter from a store (he and his family are basically starving),

“I called the cops,” he interrupts, shaking out the rest of me. The loaf of bread I want so badly joins the peanut butter at my feet.

“You don’t have to do that,” I say, jerking back and forth as the brazen store clerk pats me down. “I’m sorry. I was hungry, but I’ll pay you double when I get some cash.”

“No,” he says loudly. He shows me the grimy phone. “The police are on their way.”

…he hits the store owner to get away, does some serious damage in the process and ends up with a prison sentence. Once released on good behavior, his sweet good girl Poe has waited for him, having built a tiny nest egg as she went to college and worked to earn enough money so they can truly start their lives together.

But of course, Low realizes that his face tattoo, and criminal record make getting decent work a difficulty. He tries. Oh how he tries. And as the nest egg dwindles, and he re-discovers the feeling of starving all over gain (this time, with the love of his life), he decided to do something drastic. AND I MEAN DRASTIC!!!! AND SO BAD.

She deserves more than a mattress on the floor and roaches in the cabinets.

I tried to live the right way, but with a record like mine, I’m fated to live a life of crime and poverty.

Once a felon, always a felon.

From that moment on, their life changes. But what I loved? Is that it changed SLOWLY at first. We get to know them throughout their metamorphosis.

I’m generally not much of a “Bonnie and Clyde” lover, you see. I’ve never been all that interested in reading the “bad girl” in a story (or in a movie) or in real life. The bad guy yes… with a GOOD girl. I dunno. It’s just my thing. I was intrigued by the “bad guy” prison boyfriend aspect. I find the social-study of love between a bad guy and a good girl stimulating. The dynamic and attempt at a secure life, amongst insecure footing, makes for a thought provoking and engrossing love story. But this was on a whole other level.

Us vs. Them. Right vs. Wrong. Good vs. Evil.

And I am definitely the devil.

And this story allowed us PLENTY of that. A slow build into quite the transition and race for their lives that had my heart racing along with them!

Sure, I will admit at a few certain moments on this thrill-ride, I scoffed at the mistakes they made. I scoffed at *some* of the crazy things they got away with. Lipgloss Poe? Really? REAAAAALLLLY? Eh… what did it matter anyway, you didn’t even do as you were told, now did you?

My partner in crime isn’t as cautious.

But I get ya! Well… for some things. 😉

In fact, she shocked me. A good girl, but when she throws caution to the wind, she’s hardcore, kind of flighty, with a wild streak of troublemaker.

And then everything went to hell, but OH MY GOD I loved the crazy journey.

At times, I just had to “go with it”, but trust me, even if you scoff here and there, the book as a whole will have you forgetting any of those complaints.

Such good kids (good people, in essence) and yet, such menaces! GREAT, impelling, addictive, HOT MESS of characters. The gradual change of their “characters” (but not necessarily their hearts!!) was fascinating. A new way of life, one of crime, on the run, with no concrete plans, but just trying to keep going day by day to their eventual dream, I could barely tear myself away.

“You stupid girl,” I say, wishing I could hide her inside me. If there was a way I could split myself in half and veil Poe behind my heart, caged by rib bones and meat, I’d do it without question. Even if it meant death.

Dead and together would be mercy compared to alive and jailed apart.

GAH!!!!!! THEY ARE SO INTENSE!!!!!

Rooting for the bad guys (the villains?) and their love story, is just so much fun. 😀

5 STARS!!!!!

P.S. Thank you to the author for sending me this review copy. When I said I needed a thrill for my next read, this one sure delivered!