Review: Tattoos by Denise Mathew

Goodreads Summary
Seventeen-year-old Marilee Mackie has everything going for her, beauty, money and a bright future. But when she’s diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma her world falls apart, and instead of finishing her senior year she begins the fight of her life. 

Nineteen-year-old Jax, an enigmatic hospital orderly, lives on the Strip, the proverbial other side of the tracks. With his edgy attitude, sleeves of tattoos and rocker look, he’s the kind of bad boy that Marilee has always steered clear of.

But when Marilee’s cancer strips away every bit of her identity, leaving her a shadow of the person she once was, all the things that mattered to her before no longer hold any meaning. Determined to make a difference in the world before she dies, Marilee enlists Jax to help her with something she calls the Peace Project, a way to use her college fund money to help the people who need it the most on the Strip. 
With Marilee’s money and Jax’s knowledge of the Strip, the teenagers embark on an unforgettable journey. Where two people from completely different worlds find that miracles do exist, and that the darkest cloud of your life may be lined with the brightest rainbow. 

Tattoos is a story about love, hope and the preconceived notions and barriers that we put between us for no reason other than the way someone looks or where they live. It’s about letting go of all the things that we thought were important in the quest for our true purpose. And that sometimes the people you never thought you could love, may be exactly who you needed all along.

*I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This is also available on Goodreads*

This was a cancer book. I found it similar to The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. This novel became quite gripping, eventually. I found myself rooting for the characters, wishing 'don't die' and it was, primarily, a romance, with some cancer thrown in to the mix. 

For me, there was too much emphasis on the cancer, and sometimes not enough on the people and their relationships, which I would like to see more of. I also think that the turn-around that Marilee's parents make is too dramatic for it to be believable. 

Overall, this is one cancer book that I liked :)

Book: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17983611-tattoos?from_search=true