Skin
by B.B. Easton
Series: 44 Chapters
Category: Contemporary Romance, Young Adult Romance
Tags: High School, Tortured Hero, Taboo, Tattoo Artist
Published September 2017
Rating: ★★★★★
Boyfriend Rating: 💍💍💍💍
Amazon | Goodreads
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At age 15, BB was planning her wedding to the punk hero of Peach State High, Lance Hightower. Trying desperately to gain his attention by not eating and shaving her head, she instead ends up the object of Ronald “Knight” McKnight’s attention.
The senior skinhead who’s anger and violence scares everyone, including BB, but who ultimately ends up getting under her skin and changing her life forever.
My advice to you when you read this book – start reading it first thing in the morning on a weekend because you will not be able to put this high school romance book down once you start.
I had read Easton’s 44 Chapters About 4 Men a long time ago, and it’s where I first met Knight and B.B.
I loved this memoir romance but I honestly wasn’t sure I could handle an entire book about Knight, so I put this book off. I was so wrong.
Easton writes up front in Skin, that while most of the events that occur in this book actually happened, not all did. She took the characters where they wanted to go and all I can say is what a life this woman has led!
So, I’ll start with this. If you are looking for a romance book with the perfect heroine and the swoony hero who fall in love in the fairytale romance, this is not that type of story.
It’s so much more.
Easton pens such gritty, damaged, flawed, raw and devastatingly real teens in this coming of age tale laced with neglectful parents, poor self-esteem and the need to be loved.
It’s filled with heavy topics such as racism, homophobia, eating disorders, underage sex, teen pregnancy, drug use, suicide and so much more I’m surprised anyone survived that year of high school.
The Best, Real Characters
Easton’s characters literally just leap off the page.
B.B. herself is one badass 15 year-old. My heart hurt for her as she continually starved herself and yet she was one strong, amazing girl.
She was fearless and ended up loving a misunderstood teen who terrified her.
Knight is a character unlike any other I’ve read. I loved him so much more in this book than in 44 Chapters About 4 Men where he was just terrifying to me.
In that book I saw what others saw on the outside, but in Skin, I got to see the Knight that B.B. saw.
He was a boy who would do anything for an animal, who wrote the most romantic of love notes and who protected those he loved fiercely.
He was also a product of his neglectful life, and yet he showed how he could also rise above it.
The teenagers in this high school romance are train wrecks make no doubt about it, but their lives made the most gripping story that I couldn’t stop reading.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget Ronald McKnight or the girl who loved him.
This is a high school romance not to be missed.
Do you like gritty, coming of age romance books? Share in the comments below.
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