My Life in Black and White by Natasha Friend

My Life in Black and White
Natasha Friend
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Released: June 28, 2012
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 304
Source: Cavalier House Books

What if you lost the thing that made you who you are?

Lexi has always been stunning. Her butter-colored hair and perfect features have helped her attract friends, a boyfriend, and the attention of a modeling scout. But everything changes the night Lexi's face goes through a windshield. Now she's not sure what's worse: the scars she'll have to live with forever, or what she saw going on between her best friend and her boyfriend right before the accident. With the help of her trombone-playing, defiantly uncool older sister and a guy at school recovering from his own recent trauma, Lexi learns she's much more than just a pretty face.

I love getting ARCs from my local indie. They receive a box full of goodies, set the YA aside, and I have my pick. I know: I'm spoiled. But honestly the thing I love, even more than getting the book I'm most looking forward to, is finding a book like this: familiar author, interesting premise, but no knowledge of its existence. Finds like this one often surprise me in the best possible way.

Lexi is beautiful. It's not even an opinion; it's a fact. She is popular, she is dating the boy every girl wants, and life is easy. But Lexi isn't clueless; she knows life is great because of the way she looks, but why question a good thing? She doesn't until everything changes when she finds her boyfriend and best friend in a compromising situation at a party. She leaves the party only to get in an accident and fly through a windshield face-first. Post-accident Lexi is friendless, single, and ugly - scarred emotionally and physically from the events of one night.

It would have been easy for Lexi to be a whiny character with much of the book being a pathetic pity party, but she wasn't. Sure she was devastated by her injuries and the abandonment she felt. Sure she may not have felt so alone if she hadn't pushed everyone away. But all of Lexi's reactions after the accident, good and bad, were one hundred percent believable. I really liked Lexi, and I hate that she had to literally go through something to grow up. However, watching her grow up was most enjoyable. I loved the relationship with her sister Ruth. (I didn't have a traditional relationship with my sister growing up, so I find siblings to be extremely interesting.) The one thing that didn't click with me was the love interest. I don't know, he just didn't do it for me, I guess. Even still, I liked what that relationship taught Lexi, and I'm glad she dug Theo even if I didn't.

Overall I thought My Life in Black and White was my favorite kind of contemporary - one that takes every day events and turns them into something magic.

FTC: I received an ARC of this novel from Penguin via Cavalier House Books in exchange for an honest review.