Review: Crossing the Line by Simone Elkeles

Crossing the Line by Simone Elkeles
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this eARC book from Edelweiss. This is my honest review.
Release date: June 12, 2018

Life for Ryan has not been kind throughout his 17 years. With no father around, and a drunk mother, growing up in Chicago was very rough, especially being bullied and beat up all of the time. But Ryan had enough and decided to learn how to fend for himself by learning how to fight - how to box.

Now his mom moved them to Texas when she remarried, and Ryan hates it there even more. He hates his stepfather, and his two stepbrothers. They are the epiphany of bullies, and his stepfather hates that Ryan won't conform to his ways and rules.

After being threatened one too many times, Ryan decides to go across the border to Mexico and find a famous boxer to train with. He is taking control of his life and needs to be better at boxing to survive on his own.

Dalila has grown up pretty privileged when it comes to families in Mexico. Her father is a well-known lawyer and has a great business that has provided her family with the funds they need to be able to have a great house and even security to walk their perimeter. And Dalila has gotten an amazing education, but only so she can become a heart surgeon like her older brother was going to do before he passed away from heart conditions. So now she has to live her brother's dreams because her parents are really pushing her to do so.

Even though Dalila looks like the perfect daughter, following all of the rules, she's actually a rule breaker through and through. In fact, she decides to go to Texas to a music concert with her two friends, Demi and Soona. And at this concert, she meets Ryan, who "saved" her from a mosh pit...

That's not the last time Dalila and Ryan meet, though. In fact, their lives become so intertwined with one another, and they find themselves drawn to each other. But their lives get incredible dangerous when shady cops, persistent detectives, and 2 cartels are out looking for these two for two very different reasons. With so much against them, their happily ever after may be in danger.

*Sad face*. I really, really, really wanted to like this book. I really did!!! I love Simone Elkeles and the fact that I just gave her book 2 stars is killing me inside a little bit right now. I thought that this book would be the opposite of Perfect Chemistry to the fact that the boy was white and the girl was Mexican, but there are so many things that are different, it can't even be compared to each other.

So, Ryan and Delila. I like them individually just fine, but when they are together, it just doesn't work for me. They are so awkward around each other and act like badasses and independent, but then all of a sudden they are confessing their love for each other. It went from 0 to 100 in a matter of pages, and that wasn't a gradual attraction to each other, but "the world is going to crap and you're here, so let's do this" type of thing. At least for me, anyway.

Then all of the different parties involved. There was SO MUCH GOING ON!!!! It was a bit hard to keep track of it, and then you throw in the Spanish language, where sometimes it wasn't translated that well for non-Spanish speaking readers, and I was confused. I don't tend to be confused that often because I am so engrossed into the novel that I follow everything to a T, but alas, I was.

And, lastly, the ending... I get it. I really, really do. But I just wish it didn't happen. I needed something more, because even though I didn't connect to the characters, I was still hoping for something more to happen at the end. It was a devastating ending that ended abruptly, and I was not pleased with it at all.

I feel like this could have been an amazing novel, but there were too many things I was struggling with. It breaks my heart that I couldn't get lost in this novel like I usually do, and the fact that I wasn't as emotional about the ending really showed me that I wasn't as invested in this book as I should have been.

I am totally a fan of Simone Elkeles, still, and hopefully this is the only dud for me out of her books. I may have to go re-read the Perfect Chemistry series to get this bad feeling out of me and keep her books as a fond memory for me.

I hope I am the only one that feels this way and that all of the other readers who get their hands on this book love it so much. It just wasn't meant to be for me, unfortunately :(

I am very grateful that I was able to receive an eARC novel of this book and look forward to seeing other readers get lost in the story when it is released!

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