Thanks to NetGalley and North Star Editions/Flux for the free advance copy. Publication is scheduled for September 2018.

“Things I’d Rather Do Than Die” by Christine Hurley Deriso is the story of Jade and Ethan, two teenagers on opposite ends of the social spectrum who forge an unusual friendship when they are locked in an aerobics room for hours at the gym where Jade works. Ethan is an all-American athlete in the popular crowd, dating a cheerleader, and seemingly admired by everyone. Jade is more socially awkward, earning excellent grades with plans to become a doctor but flying under the social radar.

When they’re locked alone in the aerobics room, they spend the night talking about everything — Ethan’s devout Christianity and Jade’s agnosticism, art, television, actors and actresses, and things they’d rather die than do. They bond over both of their incorrect assumptions about the other’s life, and once they are rescued, they continue to bond over their shared experience at the gym.

I wanted to love this book. It is rare these days to find a character with devout Christian beliefs in a novel, especially one aimed at young adults. So while I liked the story, the characters and their journey, the book overall fell flat for me.

The book switches back and forth in point of view from Jade to Ethan. While I could totally relate to Jade’s thinking (having been a teenage girl), I think the author could have used the help of a male co-author to write from Ethan’s point of view. He just didn’t sound like a typical teenage boy, even one who is a little atypical. I also really disliked Pastor Rick’s character. He is the minister at Ethan’s church, and Ethan turns to him for guidance, but Pastor Rick’s advice makes him sound like a teenager himself and is not at all credible.

I will also say that I could see the end from the very beginning, which was not surprising, but again, it fell flat for me.

I would expect that some readers will enjoy this, but it really wasn’t for me.

No regular circumstances would have ever brought Jade and Ethan together. They're at the opposite ends of the social spectrum at school, and before a fateful date at the gym, they never regularly interacted. But after a near-death experience after a gym robbery, the two are on each other's radar. And they might have more in common than they thought.

Though this isn't my favorite teen romance I've ever read, there were aspects of it that felt different and unique. Jade and Ethan are both dealing with their own problems, and because we get both of their points of view, they're both very fleshed out characters. Hearing both of their inner thoughts also gives readers an interesting view of the robbery that happens--and gives us a foundation for the rest of the novel.

The only thing that turned me off about this novel was the pacing. It felt like a lot of the action happened at the very beginning, so aspects of the rest of the plot seemed to drag a bit to me. Sometimes, Ethan's narrative also got a bit preachy, but it was balanced out with Jade's narrative. Overall, an excellent beach read for the summer.

I was not expecting much when I started reading this and am glad for that. I would not have finished this book if I had any expectations going into it. I found the characters and their relationship to be a cliche. The writing was ok, but didn’t grab my attention. I felt like I couldn’t wait to finish this and find something else to read!

On a fateful night, two opposites attract. Of course, it's against their will. This story shows the story from the angle of Jade, as well as the angle of Ethan. While a life-or-death situation arises, Jade and Ethan become a lot closer than they had wished for. Ethan is with Brianne. Yet Ethan has feelings for the ice-queen he was locked up with. Ethan and Brianne go to the same church, share an unfortunate similarity with their parents, and have been together for over two years. Jade's life is being tossed upside down in every way imaginable. Her father is dying of cancer, she is not sure what to do about college, and she has feelings for someone she thought she never would. Battling their own lives, both Ethan and Jade need to do what they want. They need to do what is best for themselves.

I would suggest this book to anyone that needs a reminder of what life is about. This book shows the ups, the downs, the bad, and the good of life. Christine helps point out that all the bad in the world has good to it. There is a lesson in this book that we sometimes forget.. There is always a silver light at the end of that black tunnel.

The only thing that I didn't love about this book was the lack of personality in some of the characters. I want to make sure everyone knows that they weren't flat characters. I just wish there was more to the characters. There are certain time frames that were cut out, which was a little upsetting. Although, I do believe Deriso did a good job with this work of art. It was a very smooth read. It was another book that I didn't want to set down. Especially in the beginning.

Boring, boring, boring. I could not even finish this book. It sounded intriguing but as it got on it became worse and worse. The storyline was a stretch and the characters dialogue was awful. Really bad acting!

fter a rocky and kind of judgemental start from me I ended up unexpectedly really enjoying this.
I am a very easily influenced reader, something I really need to find a way out of. Usually I just avoid any and all other opinions, this time however I accidently scrolled down and saw a kind of negative review and so I went into this being very nit picky.

The start of this wasnt great. I didn't enjoy the writing I found it quite juvenile and just a bunch of stuff happened quite fast. Jade came off as quite of a bitch just ripping apart Ethan's religion like that and Ethan came off as quite cheesy.

About 40% of the way through things started picking up for me and infact I read the last 60% in one sitting this afternoon.
I loved the development of both characters. I loved how much representation there is in this: Religion, a mixed race and blended family, alcoholic parents, high school drama, unhealthy relationships, a positive! stepparent/child relationship.
I couldn't get enough of this book!

This sweetly realistic romance skillfully tackles questions of friendship, faith, and family in a tale that will leave readers cheering for the not-as-opposite-as-they-think protagonists.

DNFed around 130 pages in and then almost facepalmed a wall bevause I made it that far. It started off quite interesting, I liked Jade as a character and thought she was amusing. Ethan was okay, but I didn’t realize religion was to play a huge part in the narrative. It was okay, but it wasn’t very appealing to read bevause it felt forced, and I tried to respect it, I really did, but I didn’t expect it to be what it is.
Mostly, the characters were flat and the story was just meh.

This was an okay read. I’m glad I got the opportunity to read it, but I think I was expecting just a little bit more. I really liked Jade’s storyline, and all the characters that went with it, but I had a really hard time with Ethan’s. Ethan as a character was okay, but he was infuriating at times. The parts with his whiny girlfriend made me want to throw the book across the room, and the pastor who is supposed to be a mentor to Ethan really irritated me that he pushed the relationship on Ethan when it was obviously toxic.
Overall, Things I’d Rather Do Than Die is very…dramatic. And angsty. There were definitely some real parts, particularly with Jade feeling that she doesn’t fit in because of her skin colour, and the struggles she is facing with her family, and that was really refreshing in a way. It made the book easier to read because I wanted to know what the outcome would be. The high school drama was a bit much though, and I probably would have preferred the book if Ethan was just a side character.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for a honest review.

This book started off so promising! Jade and Ethan get locked in a room together after a very scary event. I know a lot of people referred to this as being a Christian Book, but I think it was more faith based. It was though the same old story that I have always heard. (Can there be a YA book with at least one or two characters who have a normal home life that doesn't include addiction or some form of illness?)
I enjoyed the "faith" way of thinking that Ethan had and I liked that he did not push it on anyone.
All in all this was a decent read, but minus the Christianity, its a book I've read over and over.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book. I did not finish this book. As others have mentioned, the religious overtones in this book are just too much. I’ve read other YA novels with very religious characters, like The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord and Little Do We Know by Tamara Ireland Stone and found them nuanced and intriguing. The problem with this one is that even just a few chapters in, I could already tell the characters were too flat and the writing too clunky for this to be an interesting examination of faith.

I'm sorry, this plot was ridiculous. I DNFd at 3 pages I was laughing so hard, the characters were so superficial and everything went too fast. Thank you for the opportunity to honestly review this book.

I am not big on young adult, not lend towards them a lot but I did like this book. It switches between the two main characters, which I am used to from reading Jodi Picoult books. The point of views continue on the story and not take two different views on the same scene.

SAVE THE DRAMA…for someone else’s Mama.

My biggest issue with this book was that it tried too hard. Every page was filled with trying to add more to the story when it was already brimmed to bursting with this and that thing happening.

When I took the story between Ethan and Jade for just their story, I thought it was cute. Maybe a bit rushed, but I could see the goodness of them.

The Christian aspects also felt very forced. While it started off as the beginning of their ‘relationship’ by discussing all things religious, from there it drifted in and out of the book at random times. As if to keep including it, but I didn’t think it played that big of a part in the story.

The book is written in a young style, but the addition of a lot of language takes that away. They’re a few kisses here and there, and no love scenes. Some violence in the beginning.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Flux, for the digital ARC!

I don’t really want to leave a review for this title, as it was a DNF for me, however NetGalley’s new “I will not be giving feedback” feature doesn’t help your feedback ratio, so here we are.

I loved the concept of this book a lot - getting locked somewhere with someone random during a robbery, by the robber in fact, is an intriguing plot but Jade and the lad whose name I forget are not memorable. And while I don’t mind religion in books, I would at least have preferred a heads up since I’m not particularly religious myself.

A poignant coming-of-age story, this novel addresses themes of race identity, social classes, faith, terminal illness, and family. I found this to be a truly heart-warming story with likeable MCs and a sweet yet wistful ending.

I received a free ARC via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

Jade and Ethan run in completely different social circles. He's a football jock and she's an intellectual book nerd who just happens to have a job at the local gym. When the gym gets robbed one night while both Ethan and Jade are there, their orbits align for one terrifying experience and things are never quite the same afterwards. Beyond the pressures of senior year, both of them are slogging through some really painful family challenges and it's possible that life is just too complicated for them to have a story of their own.

I'm of two minds about this book. On the one hand, it's pretty predicable, there are some plot holes and I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit. But, I also felt tender at the end, especially toward Jade and her family, so I did at least eventually care about her as a character. I liked that Jade is a strong, non-white character who is intelligent and has a close relationship with her father. As a religious person myself I liked that there is some legitimate wrestling with the idea of God and the role he can play in our lives. It felt like it came out of the blue, a bit, based on my initial take of the book, but it definitely is a book that deals with faith. For all it's Christian discussion, the language is strong and the romance never gets to a particularly sweet spot where I really was rooting for it. I'd bet older teens might appreciate it if they are okay with the religious piece.

Sadly, I felt as if the characters were unoriginal, the dialogue was flat, and the prose was old hat. The premise was so amazing and I was disappointed. DNF

This novel starts out with Jade working overtime when Ethan asks for 20 minutes of a workout, and they end up getting robbed and locked in a room together.

Of course that interested me right from the start because it seemed like a cool plot line. But alas, when they were rescued the story went south.

-The robbery really was an irrelevant event to happen besides allowing Jade and Ethan to meet. It seemed like that idea was thrown away after it happened but it definitely should have continued on for much longer.

-We didn't really learn much about any of the characters besides the two main. There would be times that a character would be like  "Oh yeah my mom's and alcoholic too" and it's kind of just like ?????

-I didn't like the portrayal of Ethan's parents. His mom was made up to seem very weak in my opinion and we didn't get more backstory on how bad Ethan's father is. Also, his grandma saying how his father is such a great guy but then having a scene where he is abusive and it just did not make sense to me.

-I hated Jade's best friend Gia. She just seemed like a little puppy dog that was annoying as heck

-It was quite boring I found myself skimming the book a lot because nothing really changed or excited me at all.

I can go on and on but I don't want to continue. I save my 1 stars for books I DNF so, that's why I am giving it 2.

What a great book that delves into the confusing and assuming world of teens, revealing religious assumptions and prejudices that can taint and tarnish the minds of the impressionable teens until they can figure out what is real and what is presumption. Add to this the undercurrent of false rumors and gossip and you have a great book.