When You Open Your Eyes by Celeste Conway - OPTIONAL

Conway, Celeste  When You Open Your Eyes Simon Pulse, 2012.  $16.99.  308 pages.  Content:  Language: R (36 swears; 15 Gods; 2 “F”); Sexual Content: R; Violence:  PG-13.  

Tessa has recently moved to Buenos Aires from her Virginia home.  She misses her old high school friends and boyfriend, but quickly gets lost in her new Argentinian lifestyle when she meets the handsome and troubled Lucien.  Her father works for the FBI and hasn’t been a part of their lives for the last two years, but now that he has his family in the field with him he tries to control their actions.  The more he tries to control Tessa the harder she falls into Lucien’s life.  Lucien has manic depression and expresses himself through guerilla art; however, when that guerilla art turns into what is perceived as a terrorist act Lucien and Tessa find themselves pulled in two directions.  Tessa also finds that her FBI father isn’t the upstanding person he has let his family believe in.  I thought this book was depressing and the main character didn’t show any growth.  Tessa frustrated me because she kept doing things she knew she shouldn’t –including drug use.  The sexual content was adult level and this shouldn’t be a young adult novel.  

HS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.