I applaud Rose Christo's stylized writing and even though they were young they were very interesting well-rounded characters. Big points for the portrayal of Native American characters. I bought The Dogs of Balboa years ago when I was all about YA books or books with young MCs. For me, that phase is over. So that's one of the reasons this wasn't a five-star for me. 

BR with Trisha! :)

This was a good sequel to Gives Light. However, I feel slightly disappointed because I loved Gives Light with all of my heart and I don't feel the same way about Looks Over. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Looks Over. But in my opinion, it's not as amazing as the first book.

 

I love the characters in this series. All of them have personalities and feel like real people. I especially love Skylar, he's a sweet boy and I really like reading from his POV. There's only a few minor things I didn't like, which is:
a) Why doesn't Skylar's father know sign language????
b) Ms. Whitler, the social worker is mean, almost cartoonishly so, with no reason at all

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I love the romance between Skylar and Rafael. It is so sweet and adorable and it gives me the feels and ugh! I ship them so hard.

 

I also really like Rose Christo's writing, it's just beautiful without being overly descriptive. And I really enjoy learning about Shoshone culture.

 

Looks Over is almost perfect. There's just one major reason why it didn't get more stars, which is: the plot. There is no cohesive storyline, it's all over the place. From the blurb, I expected this book to be about Skylar's father getting to know Rafael. But that's hardly mentioned at all. There's a lot of stuff going on, but there's no connection between everything.

 

Overall, this was an enjoyable sequel and I do recommend it, but I don't think it's as amazing as the first book. 

This is an amazing YA book!

I love Rose Christo. I've loved everything of hers I've read so far. They're just the type of books I could read and read again. And I don't see that stopping. I love the way she makes me feel things and she always makes me fall in love with her characters.

This book deals with some pretty heavy stuff. It's a book that won't be for everyone. But like a lot of Rose Christo books, it's one I learned a lot from.

I loved Michael and I loved Noah. I loved the friendship that developed between them. And I really wanted Michael to come clean to Noah, and to himself. His struggle felt real and I really wanted to hug him and make things better, but I know it had to work out the way it did.

He belonged in my arms. He melted into me, close and tight, and I felt every part of him with every part of me.

The ending made me smile. It was nice to see these boys find happiness. Recommended! Especially if you're a Rose Christo fan.

This was one beautiful YA story.

Mute teenager Skylar starts his new life in the Nettlebush reserve and had top gave not only a difficult past, but very recent events, fears and yes, somewhat typical and atypical teenage and coming-of-age problems.

The story is beautifully written, with a lot of sensitivity and a great sense for atmosphere. These characters probably couldn't be father away from me personally -a white, talking, adult European female -but I still felt for them, understood them und suffered with them. I loved it -almost all of it and would recommend it to almost anyone.

I only had one little niggle: The sexual aspect of the developing relationship. I don't need seedy in my books. Especially not in YA novels. On the other hand it's surreal to tell the story of two teenage boys getting to know each other, exploring their attraction to each other, kissing, falling in love with each other without no reaction whatsoever down there. Like I said, I don't need a sex scene, I don't needed explicit descriptions. Heck,I don't even need all the words. But something would have been nice. Just to make it feel perfectly real and just that tiny little bit better. But that's just my minor issue, and it was inconsequential to my rating in the end. .