Stay by Deb Caletti

"Clara’s relationship with Christian is intense from the start, and like nothing she’s ever experienced before. But what starts as devotion quickly becomes obsession, and it’s almost too late before Clara realizes how far gone Christian is—and what he’s willing to do to make her stay.

Now Clara has left the city—and Christian—behind. No one back home has any idea where she is, but she still struggles to shake off her fear. She knows Christian won’t let her go that easily, and that no matter how far she runs, it may not be far enough...."-GoodReads.

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published April 5th 2011 by Simon Pulse

Source: Simon&Schuster Galley Grab

Clara found out the hard way what happens when you let someone take hold of you emotionally and use that power against you in the worst way possible.

She meets Christian at a school basketball game and decides to just go for it, to act a little wild. Everything starts off great. Christian makes Clara feel beautiful, special, and sexy. He claims she has put a spell on him and he will do everything in his power to make sure she never leaves him. Little does she know how serious he really is when he says that.

While reading this book I kept thinking about a guy used to see and how he reminds me of Christian in almost every way. He was an emotional terrorist. I literally would go "Oh wow. J used to do that" or "Yeah, been there done that." It was like deja vu. Lucky for me I got out before I was in too deep. Clara was not so lucky. She let Christian dig so deep into her soul that she had to runaway and practically go into hiding to get away from him.

Her dad was pretty neat too. He is very involved in Clara's life and tries to help her in any way he can. But (since there is always a but), he gives his opinion about Christian, that Clara needs to leave him and Clara claims her dad's opinion yet she has to "train him" when to keep him mouth closed about Christian. And he does it! When she doesn't want to hear that Christian is an emotional abuser he actually stops talking to her about it. He pretends it's not happening...that was not okay with me.

I adored the little sea side town they went to. The more I read about it the more I wanted to move there myself. Finn made the town even more appealing. He was sweet, fun, adventurous, and just the right amount of protective. And he could sail you off into the sunset. I'd say that's a pretty good guy to have around.

Even though Christian had many creepy and controlling moments, I was intrigued by him. I would actually have liked to know more about him, about his life, what really made him snap and act like he did.

The 'Jesus Christ's' got to be a bit too much though. It seemed like barely a page could go by without someone saying it, and because it was said so much it didn't feel realistic. I'm married to a guy in the Army, so I am around soldiers all the time. Soldiers have foul mouths but even they don't say 'Christ' that much.

I've also never read a book with footnotes before...unless you count text books...so I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about them and buy the middle of the book I decided I did not like them. I didn't really understand why what was in the footnotes couldn't be part of the paragraph they belonged in. Though I did read them all when I came to one because they pertained to the story, at times I got pulled out of the story because I had to stop, look down, read it, then go back up to where I was.

Though the footnotes were annoying at times, this story is very much worth looking past them. I think it will definitely hit home with many many girls as I am sure they have either a) been friends with someone in a bad relationship like this one or b) have been in one themselves. Either way, this story is so relatible. It still has me thinking about it even a week after I have finished.

If you are working on a "Summer Reading List" or maybe looking for some books to take with you on a beach vacation, add this one to your list. Or even if you are just in the mood for a good contemporary book, pick this one up. It is most certainly worth a read.