A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

This is the first book in the A Need So Beautiful series by Suzanne Young.

When Charlotte was younger, she would get a Need once a year, where she will get this urge or sensation to go to a certain place, find a certain person, know that person's history, present, and future, and figure out what she needs to do to fix a problem that will happen.

Now that she is 16, she's getting the Need more than once a day. And it's definitely hurting her relationship with her boyfriend Harlin and her friendship with Sarah. Until she fulfills the Need, it will send sharp pains throughout her body, making it look like she kind of has asthma.

So she's been doing what the Need tells her to. But now, she has a gold patch on her shoulder where the pain usually starts. And it won't go away. Her skin has peeled away to leave only gold.

Desperate, she goes to the clinic where she works and has the doctor, Monroe, look at it because she doesn't know who else to go to.

Turns out, Monroe knows a lot more than he let on during the last 10 years! Charlotte is one of the Forgotten, a person who helps people in need and gives them hope in their life, rather than the shadows and darkness that will overtake them if Charlotte doesn't help them with their problems.

But the bad part is that Charlotte is starting to wear away. After she helps so many people, she will burst into a brilliant gold light and disappear. She is the Forgotten because everyone in her life will forget it, as if she didn't exist. Including her foster mother Mercy and her foster brother Alex, who she's known for years.

Then, Charlotte meets Onika, who used to be like Charlotte. Except she beat the Forgotten and was able to stay on Earth with her loved ones. Now Charlotte has a decision to make: fulfill her destiny and help strangers in need or fight against the Need and stay with Harlin, Mercy and Sarah. She needs to make a decision quickly, because time is running out.

What will Charlotte decide? Read A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Very uniquely done! I labeled this with Angels because I wasn't sure what else I could label it with, but it's not really angels. Charlotte just helps a lot of people regain the light and hope, which is an angelic thing to do, so I thought it would fit alright.

I really enjoyed this story. I haven't read anything like it and it kept me guessing.

I was also really intrigued that there wasn't a love triangle in this story! Finally! And Charlotte and Harlin have already been dating for about a year, so while they didn't have the first love attraction new relationships have, they definitely still had sparks for one another.

This was a bittersweet novel. Charlotte had two hard decisions to make, neither looking good for her but one she had to make in the end.

Charlotte was a great female lead. She wasn't whinny, she wasn't bad a$$, she was just a girl who wanted to be normal but found herself in a supernatural situation that she had to figure out, mostly by herself.

The ending was a surprise - I wasn't expecting it and that was nice for me since I've been able to guess what was going to happen in the last few YA novels I've read.

I definitely liked this book and I think others would really enjoy it as well. It has an angelic aspect to it, but it is like nothing I've ever read before, so I think others should read it to experience this new concept that Young created in her novel.

There is another novel following this, and I'm about to delve into it right now to see what else is going to happen in this series!