Black Box - Cassia Leo

Synopsis: Over the course of five years, Mikki and Crush cross paths on three separate occasions. Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.

Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away from her loving, though often distant, family.

Twenty-one-year-old Crush has always channeled his blackest thoughts into his music, but he's never had great aspirations. He decides to fly to Los Angeles to record a demo of the only song he's never performed in public; a song he wrote for a girl he doesn't even know: Black Box. He has no expectations of fame and he's never felt like his life had any purpose... until he meets Mikki in Terminal B.

When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love story.

I had heard many great things about this book and also about any book really from Cassia Leo. So when this one came up on my reading, I was super excited to get into it. 

“...not all stories have happy endings; but that doesn't mean they're not worth the read.” 

For all of you: this is a great story of friendship, pain and not letting your past define your future.

Mikki just wants to die. Nothing could stop her from this. Everything is planned out, and nothing and noone would make her stray from her plan. Life just couldn't go on for her anymore. And then the weather happened and has her stranded at an airport, with nowhere else to go. When she meets Crush, someone that is nice to her, she doesn't know what to do with him, but everything seems better at this point than going home. They start on a journey none of them is prepared for, with secrets pushing themselves to the surface that they both weren't even aware they are keeping. 

“This is a place where books are treasured – books that hold the sweetly magical smell of history; books that crackle when you open them and sigh when you close them; books that weigh heavy in your hands, not just your heart.” 

This story is heartbreaking, and sad, and yet it also gives you hope. Hope, that there are always people out there that will tell you that life is worth living, no matter what you have gone through. That tell you that you do matter, that you're not just someone in the background that fades to grey. And that is what makes this story beautiful. 

Mikki and Crush both have their demons to deal with, and they might not seem so distant as they think at first. Seeing them push through everything, work with those things and yet just living life is a beautiful thing to watch. You can feel with them, because your heart just reacts to the two. Love, pain, hurt....it's all there! 

This was my second Cassia Leo book and i can tell you that it definitely will not be my last. A beautiful piece of work that makes you treasure life.

Always, 

Yvi