Review- Take Me There

Take Me There by Carolee Dean
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: July 20, 2010

My Rating: 4 Stars
Dylan has a bad-boy past and a criminal record. He knows that rich, beautiful Jess is way too good for him—but she has always been the one person who sees through his tough exterior and straight to his heart, and he has been hopelessly in love with her from the first time they met. He would change his life for a chance with her.

But trouble follows Dylan wherever he goes, and a deadly mistake soon forces him to hit the road and leave his dreams behind. He's on the run and in search of answers—answers to questions he wishes he'd never asked.(Synopsis from Simon & Schuster)

Take Me There was a wonderful story with a powerful message that will leave you thinking about it for several days after you finish reading it. It took me a while to try to write my review and be able to put my feelings about it into words.  I really enjoyed the journey that Dylan takes, it took a little bit to get into it but once I got there I couldn't put it down and I wanted to know how Dylan would end up. The whole book is told from Dylan's point of view with a few of his poems in between chapters and excerpts from the book his father wrote from jail. I thought that was kind of different in a good way and we get to know about his father a lot more before we actually meet him.
While reading Take Me There you can't help but fall in love with it's main character Dylan, the bad boy. He's actually a great guy that has been surrounded by bad influences and a drunk mother and finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time more often than not. He wants to straighten out his life, but unfortunately thanks to his best friend it doesn't work out that way for him and he ends up running from the law on his way to Texas in search for his father who's in death row. Once Dylan gets to Texas he starts finding out a lot of secrets about his father and his family, things that he can't seem to remember from his childhood and what really happened the day his father was taken to jail .
 I kept trying to guess what would happen next and what the answers to his questions would be at the end, but kept being proven wrong and was actually surprised by the ending just like Dylan was. Throughout the book I just kept wanting to give Dylan a big hug, you just can't help but feel for him and wish him all the best after everything that he goes through and once I got to the end I really didn't want it to be the end. I wanted desperately to know what was going to be next for Dylan, I actually found myself crying once. This book touches some really heavy subjects like education, illiteracy and the judicial system all wrapped up in a really well written story that people can relate to about a boy that wants to be good and change his way of life.

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