ARC Review: This Raging Light by Estelle Laure

THIS RAGING LIGHT

Author: Estelle Laure
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: January 14th 2016

Book Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Orchard Books

How is it that you suddenly notice a person? How is it that one day Digby was my best friend's admittedly cute twin brother, and then the next he stole air, gave jitters, twisted my insides up?

Lucille has bigger problems than falling for her best friend's unavailable brother. Her mom has gone, leaving her to look after her sister, Wren. With bills mounting up and appearances to keep, Lucille is raging against her life but holding it together - just.

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Review

This Raging Light is one of a kind, you will not have read anything like this before; it’s emotional, uplifting at times, shows true strength and courage for one unfortunate teenager and packs one hell of a punch.

Seventeen-year old Lucille is the talk of the town, everybody knows her as the daughter of a man who snapped and attacked her mother. After her Dad was carted away to god-knows where, her Mother slowly started to abandon Lucille and her sister Wren, leaving them to fend for themselves. When word finally comes from Lucille's Father it’s only to tell them that he doesn't want to contact his family ever again, this is the final straw for Lucille's Mother, she decides she needs to go away and get help; to ultimately be a better parent for Lucille and Wren-- only she doesn’t come back. Lucille with nothing but 100 dollars must now take care of herself and her little sister, pay bills, taxes, clothes and food.

“Sometimes you just have to give up on people, not because you don’t care but because they don’t.” 

It’s safe to say that straight away you sympathize for Lucille and her current situation, I don’t think any teenager who has relied on her parents for so many years can suddenly adapt to becoming a parent, a caregiver and grow up over night. It’s not until you read this book that you realize how hard and truly heartbreaking this situation is, Lucille sacrifices everything in order to keep Wren, the neighbors, school teachers and her own friends from discovering that her Mother isn’t coming home, she won’t allow social service to take her sister away from her.

"Explain to me what the point of living is if you aren't willing to fight for the truths in your heart, to risk getting hurt. You have to rage."

The story is an incredible coming of age story, Lucille grows up so much and this would have been a 5 star book for sure if that were all it was about. However this wasn’t the case, we had a romance that started of so sweet with a requited childhood crush but turned into something more, it’s here that I had my issues. While I enjoyed the relationship between Lucille and Digby, I just wasn’t able to buy and invest in it, to me in didn’t progress as a realistic rate and when you throw in his current perfect, lovely and sweet girlfriend, - which surprised me because in YA they are usually of the slut-shaming type – the book stayed in a type of 'limbo' state.

“How does a barely noticeable star become your very own sun?”

Regardless of my thoughts on the romance I would highly recommend this book because it was a touching read and I really enjoyed all of the character’s involved, they’re wasn’t any that I hated. The book touched on a family dynamic that you don’t read about much but shows a powerful insight to a truly strong MC who you can’t help but admire. The plot along with the witty and compelling writing led to a short, simple and enjoyable read but the only thing that really let this book down was the unresolved ending.