Review – Letters to Nowhere

TITLE: Letters to Nowhere

SYNOPSIS: Set in the tough world of Elite Gymnastics…

I’ve gotten used to the dead parents face. I’ve gotten used to living with my gymnastics coach. I’ve even adjusted to sharing a bathroom with his way-too-hot son. Dealing with boys is not something that’s made it onto my list of experiences as of yet. But here I am, doing it. And something about Jordan–being around him, talking to him, thinking about him–makes me feel like I can finally breathe again. That’s something I haven’t been able to do lately. He knows what it feels like to be me right now. He knows what it’s like to wonder–what now? I think about it constantly. I need answers. I need to know how to get through this. In the gym, if you’re struggling, you train harder, you do drills and conditioning. How do I work hard at moving on? At being on my own? And what happens if I might be…maybe…probably falling for Jordan? I mean we live together now. That can’t happen, can it? But kissing him…well, let’s just say it’s not an easy activity to forget.

REVIEW: Apparently, I am in the mood for sports related novels lately and Letters to Nowhere fits in just perfectly. The story is about a girl named Karen, an elite gymnast who has moved in with her coach – and his son, Jordan – after losing both her parents in a car accident. Letters to Nowhere follows Karen as she attempts to achieve her dream of finding success as an elite gymnastic worldwide and at the same time, deal with her grief that comes with the loss of her immediate family.

I found Karen an interesting character. She was quite prone to letting the pressure get to her, through that may have been because of her grief. At times, she also appeared a bit bipolar, but that could have been because of her grief as well. It seemed like one minute she was hot, filled with anger, and the next she would be cold, cool, calm, and collected. Granted, it didn’t happen often, but still… It was interesting to see her work through the grieving process isn’t exactly what you call smooth sailing – the title of the book is very clever, that’s all I can say. She kind of struggles with her grief as it effects her ability to focus and train well. Her relationships with the other characters were also interesting to read about, especially her relationship with her teammates in her gym – one minute they are friends and fans of each other, the next, they are arch enemies. That being said, it was hard for me not to like Karen and feel for her and understand what she was feeling and why she was feeling that way.

I really liked how Julie Cross wove the gymnastics into the book. Everything was very accurate and fit the world. In fact, the world is kind of like the gymnastics world today, except names are different. Now, I don’t do gymnastics, but everything mentioned in the book is real and true, according to my friend who’s a gymnast and everything I know from watching gymnastics on TV. It wasn’t like a lot of other sports related books where some of the tiny details are wrong and incorrect.

Now granted, the novel seemed a bit on the shorter side, so maybe that is why I feel this way, but the romance between Karen and Jordan seemed a bit fast paced. Maybe time moved faster in the novel than it did as I was reading it. Maybe it was because the two of them have a little bit in common. It just seemed like their relationship moved a bit too fast. Like they just met one day and two days later are making out and in a relationship. Still, the romance was cute, and in all honestly, I think just what Karen needed.

Overall, Letters to Nowhere was a great read. I really enjoyed reading about Karen and Jordan as well as her life as an elite gymnast. The gymnastics in the book was great and according to my friend accurate. And while I feel like the romantic relationship between Karen and Jordan was a bit fast paced, I thought they were very cute together. I would recommend Letters to Nowhere to anyone who’s a fan of gymnastics or those who want to read about a cute romance.