A Need So Beautiful [Paperback]

This cover and title fit this book so perfect. The entire story was just beautiful and my connection with the characters was complete. When I put this book down I was just thinking WOW. How in the world did she pull that off?! The entire story is so completely different from anything I've read, but it was all perfect how she put it together and it all played out.
This story is beautiful in so many ways. About how and why Charlotte is what she is. Why she does what she does. And how it's almost impossible to understand and accept, but we are right there with Charlotte through it all. She has the Need before the story starts but she doesn't know what it is or why she has it. It isn't until a little ways in that she learns more and about the tough decision she must make.
I loved Charlotte, and I understood her emotions she was going through in the book. I felt so bad for her having to face those important decisions and having to deal with all she had to deal with. But she was so brave and accepting of things even when she didn't want to. She saw how she helped people, how what she did was good.
The romance was fantastic. I loved that her and Harlin had been a couple for a couple years before the book started so their romance wasn't a budding romance, or an insta-love connection. It was something that had grown and developed over time and their love connection seemed real and really quite perfect. I thought Harlin was a fantastic character and I just wish we had seen him more.
It was a bonus for me that it's all local to me. So when she talks about Voo doo donuts, and Plato's and even just the streets Charlotte walks, I knew it all. It was a clear picture in my head. It just made it even better.
The ending was one of those ending's where your left a little shell shocked but yet not exactly unsatisfied. There wasn't a cliffhanger exactly but your left hoping there's more, much more to this story. It could be a stand alone, but thank goodness it isn't! We just have a long wait for it. This book far exceeded my already high expectations. Suzanne wrote a creative and unique story with compelling characters and a story line you've never even dreamed of.

Ever since I saw the gorgeous cover and saw the pitch for this book, I knew that I had to read it. And it didn't disappoint. Charlotte has always known that she's different. Ever since she was young, she's been drawn to help perfect strangers, and to her dismay now the Need to help is growing stronger. When she finds out that she's destined to leave the Earth as a Forgotten and spread her light of hope to the people whose lives she has touched, she wants out. All she wants to to hang out with her best friend Sarah like normal and plan her future with her boyfriend Harlin.

Charlotte has a powerful voice. She's kind, beautiful, and willful. Underlying the entire book is a hint of desperation. Charlotte is a gentle, loving girl by nature, but the growing inability to conceal her Need is driving her to the breaking point. She has a life with people who care about her. She doesn't want to hide anything from them, but she's afraid that they'll think she's crazy. What else do you think about a girl with compulsions to help complete strangers that can happen at any time of day?

A Need So Beautiful isn't a long book, yet it had be enchanted for an entire day. Somewhere, I found myself hanging on every word, eager to turn the page and yet wanting to absorb every single word. There's action in this story; more than that, there is mystery and yearning. Charlotte can't escape the Need, but she doesn't want to be Forgotten. She wants to leave her mark in history just like the rest of us.

I did feel that we didn't need the last chapter, as the thought of Charlotte giving herself to the light was such a beautiful, bittersweet ending. However, I am excited at the same time, as it tells us that there is more to this story--that there will be a sequel, even without Young's announcement. I can't wait to read the sequel, A Want So Wicked!

There are suggestive scenes in this book. I recommend A Need So Beautiful for the older teen readers.

I read this book in one sitting because I just had to find out what happened with Charlotte.

I love that the central love-story is one of holding on to an existing relationship, rather than the more usual "which boy do I want to choose?" And let's be honest, Harlin sounds pretty nnnnghhh yeah. I'd be hanging on to him too. If you know what I mean. And I think you do.

Parts of the book felt a little episodic, with the compulsion Charlotte feels to fulfil the Need, but it never reached the point where I was annoyed by it, and wanting to know what Onika was going to offer Charlotte, and what escape she could take kept me reading.

I would have loved to have seen a little more of Charlotte and Sarah's relationship, at first it seemed like Charlotte was just there to be a shopper and "let's talk about guys!" friend to Sarah, although this developed more at the end. I dunno, it's the one thing where I would have liked to have seen a deeper connection from the beginning, but I also could see how that would have shifted the focus of the story.

Watching Charlotte be forgotten by her friends and family killed me, but the Harlin thing had me going OMG IS HE? The final chapter has me desperate to read the sequel A Want so Wicked