Filthy Foreign Exchange 2

by SE Hall and Angela Graham

We haven’t had long to wait on this the completion of Kingston and Echo’s story and as much as I loved the first book and was really keen to see where their relationship was headed…I have to say that this wasn’t at all what I had anticipated.

With a time lapse of 6 months, Echo was full of excitement for the trip around Europe that she was all set to embark on but she had to have understood that keeping her distance from Kingston was completely unrealistic, his family had extended in invitation after all. But naivety aside her enthusiasm was quickly tempered when she is left in no doubt that Kingston has other plans for how her trip this side of the pond is going to pan out!

He has her in his own back yard now and he is not going to let her slip through his fingers again. Mistakes, misunderstandings and manipulation led to his untimely and painful departure from her life before but now he is back…he intends to say.

Acting as the tour guide for the group Echo will be travelling in it initially appeared as if he would be better off standing in the corner bashing his head off a brick wall, she was one stubborn girl and was steadfast in her determination that they were done…history but could she keep her walls build high when he is with her day in day out or would he be able to recognise the chinks in her armour. I hoped so because I liked Kingston, it was Echo that grated on me somewhat.

So let’s just get this out of the way now, one small gripe…I know she is a kid but bl**dy he** Echo get a grip…the chemistry between the two of them was off the scale, people who had just met them could see what was going on yet she almost buried her head in the sand. I could imagine her sticking her fingers in her ears and humming loudly in a bid to drown out the singing cherubs …they belonged together and she was being a complete pain in the butt.

But Kingston had a tenacity about him that had me smiling, he knew her better than she knew herself and he was a patient man, when he got his opportunity to tell her the truth about what happened before he left, he knew that his way back into her life was clear and he made full use of the opportunity and there was no going back. Echo was his and she always would be. Although when I read what happened that night I couldn’t help but think just how f**ked up it all was!

When she listened, really listened not only to Kingston but also to her heart she finally understood what she wanted and who she wanted that to be with, Kingston was in her soul and he always had been, I got that she had been hurt but that was not his fault and when she finally understood their relationship was never going to be a long lingering build up, it hit the ground running and it never looked back. They were destined for big things and together they had the world at their feet.

I liked the story and I would definitely say that it was firmly entrenched in the young adult camp, it skated quickly over subjects that could and should have perhaps had longer spent on them, namely Charlotte. I found her whole storyline left me with more questions than answers.

But this was a book about two young people that reached an inevitable happy ever after in lightning speed and with minimal angst, so what was there not to like about it. The book was well written, no scratch that the book was very well written, it had a fabulous grasp on the colloquialisms and infractions that we brits like to use and the style of the prose meant that reading it was an afternoon well spent.