Book Review: White Trash Beautiful (Teresa Mummert)
Title: White Trash Beautiful
Series: White Trash #1
Author: Teresa Mummert
Published: July 9th 2013
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4.5/5
Source: NetGalley eARC provided for honest review
BLURB:
Cass Daniels isn’t waiting for her knight in shining armor. She knows that girls like her don’t get a happily ever after. Not if you live in a trailer with your mom, work at a greasy spoon diner, and get leered at by old men. Maybe that’s why she puts up with Jackson—her poor excuse for a boyfriend, who treats her like dirt. Cass has learned to accept her lot in life. That is, until he walks into her diner. . . .
His name is Tucker White, and he’s different from any man Cass has ever known. Tall, tattooed, and bad-ass gorgeous, he’s the lead singer of the rock band Damaged. From the moment they meet, Tucker sees something in Cass he just can’t shake. Something beautiful. Something haunted. Something special. And he’s determined to find out what it is—if only he can get her to open up and let him in. . . .
REVIEW:
The story:
Wow, this story was one one hell on emotional roller coaster. Mummert certainly put poor Cass through so much, but I felt she came out the other side a stronger person. We first meet Cass working at the local dinner across from the trailer park, where she lives with her mother & abusive drug addict boyfriend Jax. She struggles to get through each day - only just surviving. While working herself into the ground each day to earn just enough money to eat, Jax takes the money to fund his drug habit and has now dragged Cass's mother down with him.
When Tucker walks into the dinner he sees Cass and sees something familiar - he's been in her position before & wants to help her. At first Cass doesn't trust him, why would she, she has no reason to believe he's different to any other man in her life (including her father who abandoned her years earlier). But slowly Tucker shows Cass that she deserves better than the life she has and that he can be the one to make her happy.
The characters:
Cass was a surprising complex character. At first she comes across as weak, not able to escape her unhappy life. But as we get to know her she shows courage that she didn't realise she had. She's in a difficult situation, not wanting to leave her mother, but having no way to help her either. It takes her a long time to realise just how strong she truly is, and watching her grow throughout the book was beautiful.
I loved Tucker - he was patient and caring, and I felt he had a real motivation for helping her other than the standard "there was just something about her" or "she was so beautiful" responses. He'd been in a similar situation and was lucky enough to have someone help him - he wanted to do the same for her. Falling in love just happened along the way.
As for Jax, well, quite simply I hated him - he's uncaring, nasty and only seems to care about money or getting his next fix. His verbal & physical abuse of Cass, while not overly graphic truly upset me, mainly because it felt so real, like this could happen to any woman (and sadly it does)
The romance:
At first I was a little concerted about the whole cheating element (because I loath characters that cheat), however I didn't feel it was a simple case of cheating. Cass wasn't a selfish girl in a love triangle who couldn't decide which guy she liked more, she was trapped in an abusive relationship trying to find the courage to trust someone & believe that she deserved better. She feels extremely guilty over her actions, and doesn't try and blame her actions on her situation.
Tucker and Cass's relationship does progress very quickly, but that didn't make it feel any less believable. They had such a strong connection and understanding with one another, it was beautiful.
The Witting:
Mummert does a beautiful job tackling a very difficult topic and doesn't try and make Cass's situation black & white. The flash back scenes of Cass & Jax's relationship early on (before the drugs & abuse) showed how Cass got trapped in this relationship in the first place. We could see how they fell in love & I could understand Cass wanting to stand by him, hoping to one day find that same boy from her memories - it's not an easy choice for her to just leave him.
My only issue with this book was that the ending felt slightly rushed. A lot of things happen towards the end in such a short space of time, and I felt some of those things could have been expanded on a little more. There was almost an overload of events that I didn't get to fully appreciate everything that happened.
FINAL WORD:
Despite the rushed ending I absolutely loved this story. It was emotional and at times utterly heartbreaking. Cass & Tucker endure so much heartache, I found myself completely shattered by the end. I wasn't prepared for this to have such a powerful effect on me but it did, and I can't wait to see where Mummert takes Cass & Tucker's story next.
CONTENT:
Sexuality: medium / sex scene
Violence: medium-strong / scenes of domestic violence
Language: medium / several f words
Drugs & alcohol: strong / several scenes of drug use
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Tralalalala, I loved this book!!!! And perfect review. I couldn't agree more with everything you said!
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