Review: Delinquents (Dusty #2) by Mary Elizabeth & Sarah Elizabeth

Publish Date: October 22nd, 2014
Publisher: The Elizabeths, LLC
Rating: 4.5 / 5
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Downloaded a free copy from Amazon.

Blurb:

The innocent girl with a delinquent heart has to live with her bad choices. Secret hope and hurt feel like falling while she learns how to breathe again, but there's still freedom in trouble.

The runaway with blacked-out eyes is losing his grip. Crushing two hearts in one fist, his addiction bends rules and breaks deals, but the boy born for bliss isn't going anywhere without a fight.

Love is knowing they should stay away, but love is illogical at best.

She's afraid to let go.

He won't let her.

This is how silliness and foolishness grow up.

Here, forever is a lie.

I probably could have just merged this review with my review of Innocents. It just continues the same sad story of a drugged out boy, an enabling girl, and their destructive, all-consuming love. I just have too many thoughts for one post.

Too Many Thoughts

I'm obsessed. I am so damn obsessed with Dusty and Bliss. This was made for anyone that's experienced that certain crazy kind of love. The kind of love that's completely unhealthy. The kind of love that everyone sees is wrong, but you can't because you're stuck deep in it. The kind of love that has you sobbing into the phone and calling your man repeatedly at 3am because "where the hell is he?" The kind of love that lets you down repeatedly but you can't leave because this damn romance has consumed your life.

Thankfully, I've never been through this sh*t. Going through it with Dusty and Bliss was enough for me. I don't think I could ever survive this. I could hardly survive reading it.

A decade. A decade of this sh*t. It started off innocent-- "little girl strawberry-blonde" and her infatuation with "2 years older, the King of Cool". Flirting eyes and playful hair tugs turned into sneaking into Dusty's bed each night. Dusty's addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, and weed evolved into a greater addiction to harder drugs. I watched Dusty's eyes turn from beautiful blue to dark black. I watched his body waste away from baseball-playing strong to brittle bones.

Bliss. Screw you, Bliss. You enabled him. You knew how bad his addiction was and you covered for him. What kind of love is this? A decade. A decade of him sneaking off with his boys and strolling in at 4 in the morning, sky high, and she just cries and hits him and rips at his shirt. A decade of him disappearing for weeks at a time and she stays silent while watching his parents and sister frantically search for him. HELP HIM, DAMNIT. WHY DIDN'T YOU HELP HIM??

Memorable Quotes

My truth: I love a lost cause. I love a failure, and I lost myself in him when I was just nine years old.

"You want to have this fight now, little girl?"

My lungs smolder and my brimstone heart seethes hateful, jilted beats while this boy spits acid through a smile I used to dream about.

"Come on, sunny side," he taunts. "We just got here. You don't want to have a little crybaby breakdown first?"

The flames in my chest raze and burn deeper.

"Didn't you miss me, Bliss?" he asks, his voice depleted and mean as he steps closer. "Don't you want me to hold you?"

"Don't fucking touch me," I warn, shaking my head as I step back.

"Don't touch you?" His laugh is depraved. "Okay," he says. "Did you bring your fucking crayons?"

Just for background: He's called Bliss "little girl" and "baby baby baby" since she was 9. He's called her "sunny side" since he found out she prefers her eggs sunny-side up.

4.5 asterisks (minus the .5 because the ending KILLED me)

Happy Reading!