11/17/2015

Review || Trust the Focus by Megan Erickson

Title: Trust the Focus
Author: Megan Erickson
Publisher: InterMix
Published: March 27th 2015
Format: eBook
Genre: NA, LGBTQ
Series: In Focus #1
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Find on: Goodreads

Summary:
With his college graduation gown expertly pitched into the trash, Justin Akron is ready for the road trip he planned with his best friend Landry— and ready for one last summer of escape from his mother’s controlling grip. Climbing into the Winnebago his father left him, they set out across America in search of the sites his father had captured through the lens of his Nikon.

As an aspiring photographer, Justin can think of no better way to honor his father’s memory than to scatter his ashes at the sites he held sacred. And there’s no one Justin would rather share the experience with more than Landry.

But Justin knows he can’t escape forever. Eventually he’ll have to return home and join his mother’s Senate campaign. Nor can he escape the truth of who he is, and the fact that he’s in love with his out-and-proud travel companion.

Admitting what he wants could hurt his mother’s conservative political career. But with every click of his shutter and every sprinkle of ash, Justin can’t resist Landry’s pull. And when the truth comes into focus, neither is prepared for the secrets the other is hiding.


Thoughts:
I really enjoyed the book from start to finish. The premise of it all sounded interesting, and I think it delivered what it set out to do. It was very sweet and cute, but in the end, I wasn’t blown away by the story, and I was left with wanting more from it. Or, I think I expected to get something more from it. The story deals a lot with growing up. Both boys have just graduated college, and is at that point in life where they need to figure out where to go. I really liked how the theme was shown throughout the whole book.

The romance in the story was so sweet, and there were some absolutely adorable moments between the two characters. These were usually scenes where not much was happening, but it was the small things that mattered, and that absolutely melted my heart. However, I would have liked some more build-up to that romance. Because we don’t get that much back story on the characters, and where they have already been in regards to the romance, it loses some of what could have been a build-up to it.


“Trust the focus and put down the camera.”

  
The characters made the story interesting. I really liked both characters, even though they could be difficult to tell apart some times, because their voices were, in many ways, very similar. I feel like we got to know so much about Justin and not enough about Landry. I would have loved to get more back story on him, which in turn, I think, would round the character more, and make him stand out from Justin Not having that much on Landry made him seem a little flat and, at times, unrealistic as a character. But besides them falling a little flat from time to time, they seemed real to me. They both got frustrated, and they both lashed out, and when they did, it felt real – that’s something I really appreciated about the book and the writing.

I enjoyed reading from the perspective of Justin. I think he made for an interesting main character, but at the same time, I would have liked, again, to hear from Landry. Granted, it made parts of the book seem more real, and more uncertain, because we had no idea what was really going on, but that also frustrated me to no end. There were some intense parts in the book, but they seemed far to short. That's one of the problems I have with this book. I kept wanting more, more drama, more intense scenes, more yelling and conflicts. It could be because of Justin's personality, that he wants to avoid the all too intense feeling, but as a reader, it gets frustrating to read. 

I think that the photography aspect tied the story well together. In the beginning, I wasn’t too sure how it would be incorporated, but the way it played into the story just worked so well. I’m glad that it wasn’t just a fleeting theme throughout, but that it actually brought something to the story and the plot.

The ending, for me, was a little bland. I feel like there could have been done something more with it. It was beautiful, and as a whole I liked the ending, don’t get me wrong, but I would have loved a little something more, and I kind of wanted the story to go off with a bang (not literally though).