Book Review: I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.
Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.

Let's take a moment to appreciate the pretty cover.
I've read Heather Demetrios' other novel, Something Real sometime last year and really enjoyed it.
This one blew that out of the water. 
I loved this book. So. Much. It was written beautifully, the characters were real and compelling, the story was great and the heart-breaking moments were heart-shattering. I went around the house for days as I read this saying "Ugh, it's sooo sad" "Whyyyy" and a lot of groaning. 
When I first read that this was most likely going to end up as a romance novel with a girl falling in love with a boy who had just come back from war without a leg- I was hesitant. I was afraid this was going to be some weird romanticizing of amputees and war veterans. It wasn't, to my delight. She also didn't ignore it. It wasn't a quick mention in the beginning and then you forget about it until it's mentioned later. It was just... there. I never pictured Josh (the love interest & sometimes narrator) without his prosthetic, unless specified that he didn't have it on. The author wrote it as a normal thing that happens, which it is. I really loved how she did that. Thank you.
God, this was heartbreaking. It wasn't because of what you're probably thinking. It was the normal things that happen to everyone when they start dating or doing that thing in books and movies where they're basically dating but not officially. And then one of them goes off and messes everything up. That's what happened. So much angst and sorrow and FEELINGS. Prepare yourself, if you decide to read this.
I would so recommend it and I can't wait until I have enough money so I can buy this.

Read: April 2015
My Rating: 5 stars / 5 stars