Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed.

Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse.

But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way—people she never noticed before; a boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's done. If only she can forgive herself

Rating: 4 stars

This was the first non-fantasy YA romance I've read in a long, long time. And I enjoyed it. It had an air about it, it was all cute and fluffy. I don't think it was supposed to be, but I thought it was.

The main character, Chelsea, can't keep a secret for the life of her. This character flaw has given her a friendship with the most popular girl in school, a high social ranking, hence all the party invites. One day Chelsea is at a party, when she gets drunk and is looking for an open bathroom to throw up in. She knows there's one in the master bedroom of the house, but when she goes in there she sees two guys making out on the bed. She recognizes one as Noah Beckett. Noah wasn't really a popular kid, but she definitely did not know was gay.

So what does she do? She, being drunk, tells everyone about it. Two guys, Warner and Joey, both drunk, find this disgusting and they go after Noah, and end up beating the crap out of him. He ends up in the hospital with a coma. But no one knows who beat him up except Chelsea and her friend...who tells her not to say anything. Well, that's impossible, and probably would be for anyone, if you knew who committed a serious crime.

So Warner and Joey get arrested, and her friend hates her for telling the cops that they did it. So her friend has completely shut her off and she is now a social outcast. Hurt, guilty, and alone, Chelsea takes a vow of silence. Which brings the main theme of the story, Chelsea and her vow of silence.

I liked Chelsea, it was really obvious she felt horrible for telling anyone, and her resolve to take the vow was really strong. I respected her for that. And she had everyone's best interests at heart, even when her friend was being a complete jerk.

Sam and Asha were awesome, especially Asha. She was so...out there and weird, the perfect side kick to any book. Sam was a cute love interest, and I never really thought of Brendan as one in the first place. And Sam was so at ease with Chelsea and her vow and what she did, I just couldn't help but love him. Plus he can cook, keep up with a witty conversation, and kinda sorta draw. 

All in all, this book was cute. Everything was okay in the end, and the plot was well paced. No insta-love, praise the Lord, and all the characters were all super-lovable, except the bad ones, of course. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone.

xxAvalon