Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Maria and Sebastian both come from different, but equally difficult backgrounds. Sebastian's dad has told him that his mother is dead and has tried to keep him protected and away from the world. Maria has two kids and is living with her abusive and explosive boyfriend. When they both take to riding the subways at night to get away from their lives, one moment of brief contact binds them together irrevocably. But figuring out how to make their relationship work throughout all of the unique problems that present themselves is going to be trying. Especially when Sebastian isn't officially an adult yet and Maria doesn't tell him about her kids until they're only days away from running off to live with Sebastian's grandmother in the desert. Can these two star crossed lovers figure out how to make it work when they have so many difficulties to face?

For the most part, this book was really good. The plot was interesting, the characters were beautifully written, and the writing was smooth and fit perfectly with the style of the book. And with all of those good aspects, you'd think it'd make for an amazing book, wouldn't you? And yet, while, it was a very good story, I just don't think that it did it for me so much. The beginning was rather slow and I just didn't feel like I could really relate to what was happening or even feel interested. Catherine Ryan Hyde does an amazing job at describing the setting though, and that was one of the things I appreciated the most about the book. Whether it's in New York or in the desert, you really feel like you're there which was one thing that made me think that perhaps the non-interesting parts of the story could be made up for a little bit. And they were. Even though I wasn't completely thrilled, I don't think that you could have too many hard feelings about Chasing Windmills just because of the lavish description and the endearing and realistic characters. As this was the second book of Catherine's that I've read, I think I stand the same place regarding both Chasing Windmills and Becoming Chloe. While I wasn't as blown away as I expected to be by either of them, they were still decent books that deserve to be read. Expect a good plot and beautiful writing, but don't expect to be flipping pages without reserve. These are the kind of books that are meant to be read slowly and studied, not raced through. And sadly, at least in Catherine Ryan Hyde's case, that's not really my kind of book, but I can still appreciate them. Maybe my opinion will change when I read The Day I Killed James, which I hope to get to in a few weeks or so!