Sunday, May 17, 2015

Review: Righteous by Kim Lehman

Goodreads  / Amazon
Review Copy via Netgalley
February 24, 2015

A story about a troubled girl and her effed up, going-nowhere life.

Quick witted, sharp-tongued Righteous Andrews is troubled by a broken past, fed up with her present circumstances, and resolved to a hopeless future. 

On the first day of her senior year of high school she gets in trouble, landing in the principal’s office . . . again. There she meets Colt Jackson, the new kid with a troubled past of his own. Despite her attempts to avoid him, Colt seems to show up everywhere she doesn’t want him to be, and soon they strike up an unexpected friendship. Righteous is wary. Friendships aren’t her thing. But something about Colt is different; something about him makes her curious, makes her wonder . . . 

Is Colt Jackson really different from everyone else? Does happiness and love truly exist? Or will every relationship in her life always end in lies and heartache?


This is the story about a girl named Righteous. Why do I feel like I should start rapping when I start that sentence? Anyways, she goes by Ria. Her mother, desperate for the attention of a man and with super incredibly crappy taste in them, basically doesn’t acknowledge Ria’s presence until after another man has let her down. And at this point her mom has pretty much gone through the entire bar’s worth of men. Ria has hardened herself. She’s been let down time and time and time again. Ria is pretty much done with any dreams or hopes or friends that she has ever had. When the mysterious new guy comes into town with a sugar sweet smile and a back story that has a dash of murder, Ria refuses to believe the murders and continues of keeping her secrets, blocking out the world and visiting the friend at the nursing home.

This seemed like it would be a terribly ‘me’ story. Girl stands up for who she is (maybe kicks a little bit of society along the way) and then finds a guy who may or may not be a psycho. No insta-love and a whole lotta mystery. And darkness. And ooh ahh moment.

There was quite a bit of that, but I think this book was lacking in one main component that would have made is amazing. What was it missing? I was unable to connect with any of the characters. I mean, the principal was cool. He actually cared what happened to everyone. But the girls were are so unlike what I have ever experienced in my life, and the guys (I mean that bullying scene made me furious) were just all asshats. Pardon my French. But, good lord. What the hell do they think they’re doing? Do they have no moral value what so freaking ever? And, THE ONE GUY THAT STOOD UP FOR THAT POOR KID IS THE ONE ACCUSED OF MURDER? YOU MUST BE JOKING.

So that did infuriate me a bit.

There was also the fact of the ending. No. There will be no spoilers. But, I will say it was way too neat. Especially from all the things that happened in the novel that just weren’t neat.

Overall, this book didn’t meet my standards. It wasn’t a bad read, but it just wasn’t really all my cup of tea either.

So how are y'all today? Meet a murderer? An accused murderer?


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