Review: LOVE EDY by SHEWANDA PUGH

Title: Love Edy

Author: Shewanda Pugh

Series: Love Edy #1

Release Date: June 24th 2014

Age Group: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

BLURB

When Edy Phelps falls hard for her best friend, she knows nothing can come from it. Forget actual chemistry, or the fact that she cherishes his mother more than her own; centuries of tradition say that Hassan will grow up, marry the girl his parents pick, and forget his best friend: the dancer with the bursting smile. Except he can't. In a world erupting with possibilities for the boy with a body of steel and dreams of the NFL, everything seems promised while nothing at all is; when he's denied the girl he wants most. 
Two hearts. Two families devoted through generations of friendship. Could Edy and Hassan really risk all that? And yet ... how could they not?

Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Review

Behind the romance of Love Edy, Shewanda Pugh immerses her reader in ethnic minority American cultures, addressing issues such as arranged marriage, religion and forbidden love.

Love Edy is driven by its two main characters, Nassan and Edy and their evolving relationship. The story begins at the end of Edy's fourteenth year and ends as she turns sixteen. Despite the fact that the best friends are relatively young in age, the passion between them is intense and the emotions they communicate are more mature than some adults.

The Phelps and Pradhan families have known each other for years and Edy and Nassan have grown up closer than most siblings. They are certainly not meant to fall in love, especially as Nassan is already betrothed to a traditional Hindu girl. Yet in a sense Shewanda Pugh allows her reader to see that actually their love is inevitable. The third person narrator mainly concentrates on the events in Edy's life and her desperate attempt to deny her feelings, but we are also given a glimpse into Nassan's head. Nassan acknowledges that Edy is changing, physically as well as emotionally and as her new friendship with Wyatt develops, Nassan's jealousy increases. As the star football player at school he has girls throwing themselves at his feet and though they provide him with a distraction, he realizes that there is only one girl for him.

The strength of the desire for each other causes both Edy and Nassan to cross the boundaries their cultures and their parents have set for them, between what SHOULD be and what IS. As readers we have to acknowledge not only their bravery, but that love transcends religion, race and rules.

Shewanda Pugh creates several secondary characters who either help or hinder the young couple. First there is Bean, who is also finding his own identity and I would like to have seen him developed further.

The three Dyson brothers have grown up with Nassan and Edy and are as protective of her as they would be their own sister. They provide much of the humor in this novel, but I think their characters are stereotyped as the high-school jocks.

Wyatt is someone I immediately mistrusted and as he tries to 'claim' Edy, this feeling only grew, although I was unprepared for his later story-line.

Shewanda Pugh's story not only provides a voice for a minority in the Young Adult contemporary romance genre, but Love Edy is well-told with an ending which leaves us thinking 'What the hell'!!!!

I can't wait for Bittersweet.

Rating: