In less than three weeks, I have almost quite literally devoured the entirety of Ms. Rebecca Yarro’s Flight and Glory series. And let me tell you – it has been a rollercoaster. I was so beyond caught up in the ride that I didn’t even bother to write any reviews along the way. But that stops today! Time for us to jump back on this rollercoaster and talk about Eyes Turned Skyward.
Immediately after finishing Full Measures, all I could think was, Please let us see stories from the other characters. More specifically, I found myself endlessly fascinated by Jagger, Josh’s best friend. I dove into this series completely blind and without knowing what was going to happen next. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I was gifted exactly that scenario.
Eyes Turned Skyward, is essentially Jagger’s love story, and in the smallest of ways, it hit a little close to home. Enter Paisley Donovan, a southern sweetheart with an incredible amount of loyalty for those around her and…a library science major? Points for the librarians on this one!
The way Jagger and Paisley meet? He saves her. Literally.
Paisley is on the quest to complete the bucket list of her sister, Peyton, who passed away from a heart condition that they both share. Peyton’s death was so sudden, that Paisley made it her mission to try and finish this list all before her 21st birthday – the age Peyton was when she passed. With her birthday approaching, Paisley is convinced that she won’t outlive her sister, and takes advantage of what the list has to offer.
A relaxing time at the beach before school starts with her best friend, Morgan? Sounds perfect. But her quiet moment of peace turns into terror when she’s thrown off a pier into the ocean by someone in Morgan’s friend group. This would be fine, except for the fact that she doesn’t know how to swim. She’s suddenly drowning and the list she was determined to complete? Well, it appears that it would be impossible now. Right?
WRONG.
Jagger, who happens to be at this beach, flys (no pun intended) into action to save Paisley, pulling her from the water and saving her life.
This gives Jagger the perfect way to insert himself into Paisley’s life, but their time together was short-lived. They part ways after Jagger makes sure that she is okay, but fate throws them back together. And though Paisley is very attracted to Jagger, she insists that they are just friends.
We all know how that goes.
Throughout the book, there is a lot of dancing around each other and their feelings. Paisley is determined to finish Peyton’s list, but her boyfriend Will Carter, and her family treat her like she’s fragile and that she can’t do anything that can exacerbate her heart condition. Jagger, on the other hand, who has no idea about this condition, helps Paisley with the list without ever knowing. Paisley never tells him the truth, keeping her heart condition (and the list) a secret.
But Paisley isn’t the only one with secrets in this book.
We learn a lot more about Jagger in this book, and the way that Rebecca writes his story, it’s vague enough to make you question the truth and the reality of what we’re looking at. And it’s good. It’s intense and it’s enough to pull you in and wonder if Jagger is really the right person for Paisley (spoiler – he is). As you wade through Jagger’s story, you start to put the pieces together, but the big reveal in his story wasn’t one I was entirely expecting.
One of the other major components of this book that is important to take note of involves going back to Paisley’s boyfriend, Will Carter, who plays a critical role in who she is as a person. He’s a West Point graduate and someone who plays by the rules. He is extremely careful and doesn’t dare do anything that would upset Paisley’s heart condition. She loves Will, but she’s also very aware that Will was in love with her sister Peyton. This adds a whole complicated layer where it’s obvious Will loves Paisley, but he’s not in love with her and makes us root for Jagger even more.
Like all of Rebecca’s books, things get a little wild in the end, but we reach a happily ever after for Paisley and Jagger and I loved it.
I’m not sure what it was about this particular book that pulled me in as hard as it did. I think it’s a mixture of how Jagger was willing to just be Paisley’s friend if that’s what she needed and how he was willing to let her live. Even though Paisley was pretty selfish in not telling Jagger the truth about her heart condition, I can understand why she didn’t. Her family started to treat her like she was fragile, and she needed to prove to herself that she wasn’t. Of course this was all with the underlying cause that she felt that she needed to finish Peyton’s bucket list, but it allowed her the opportunity to also learn that she could make decisions for herself.
I admittedly didn’t cry as much in this book as I did in the first, but I greatly enjoyed it. It was a great addition and a fantastic sequel to Full Measures, and I give this book 5 stars.
Until next time.
Want to join a new community devoted to long distance relationships? Join the XO From Abroad Discord or stop by the XO From Abroad Facebook Group!
[…] meeting Grayson Masters in Eyes Turned Skyward, I had a sneaking suspicion this book would be about him. I was very excited about this because it […]