Measuring Up by Nyrae Dawn

“He hurt me more than anyone ever has, but he loved me better than anyone ever did, too.”

I have yet to read more books of Nyrae Dawn's but her writing captured me in Measuring up. She used simple words, simple sentences yet altogether they made something very beautiful.

Annabel Lee is a 17 year old girl that isn't a size 0, or close to. Her mother is in very nice words a complete and utter witch. Having hired a personal trainer to help her lose weight during the summer. The last thing she expects is for her personal trainer to be blonde, muscular and funny. His name is Tegan and in her eyes just another jerk, but Tegan is much more than that. He's the boy that teaches her to box when she's having a bad day, Who jogs with her letting her set the pace.

Fitness isn't all that is on either of their minds though, and soon he offers her much more than just working out together. His kisses leaves her always wanting more. The way he looks at her makes her feel much more beautiful than what the scales read and most of all unlike her mother he does not expect perfection, or tends to shield her from the world like her father does. Tegan has a lot to learn from Annabel though. He needs to learn that he can't always protect those he loves and that sometimes you have to do what's right for you instead of what's right for others in order to ever be truly satisfied in life.

Love is a complicated thing though, and soon both of them have to learn that loving someone doesn't always mean needing someone.

Measuring up is a book that you read within a night, it's a book that makes the smallest, the simplest things in life matter. It's a book that makes you realize love is not need. To love you do not have to need that person, if anything you should love them but never need them because that love can disappear from your life in a matter of seconds.

This book gets 3 out of 5 stars from me, it was beautifully written and a perfect romance. I guess the reason it wouldn't get 5 out of 5 though is because we've all seen this story before, boy meets girl - girl isn't good enough for boy. Boy loves girl anyways, girl loves boy. Life gets in the way and then they get the perfect ending. But this book does have more than that in it, it's message is what we should all keep within our hearts for years to come.

Need is not love, and vice-versa.

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