Review: Another lovely and unique book from Julia Kent!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2013
***I received an ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review***Let me first say that I am a fan of Julia Kent in general. She is truly the "thinking woman's super steamy novelist." In a sea of literary sameness in this genre, she is an author whose voice is always distinct and challenges the reader to think as well as enjoy. I particularly like her pop culture awareness and commentary.All of those have come to bear in this second installment of the Random series. The world of this series overlaps with that of the Billionaire books and Its Complicated in such a clever way. That alone is a treat that make it worth giving this book a try. Random Acts of Crazy is still my very favorite Kent novel and, thankfully, this book has a a lot of Darla, Trevor and Joe. I could read 5 books just about them, so I was thrilled to see them featured in here. I am dying to see how their story plays out and hope that the 3rd book (about Liam) has a lot of them, too. Liam's book promises to be awesome. Can't wait for that one to come out!This book is the story of Sam and Amy. They have an intriguing history of regret and perceived rejection set against the backdrop of high school debate (did I mention that Ms. Kent's stories are always unique? ha ha) I enjoyed these two a lot, even though as a lawyer and law school survivor, I have a lingering antipathy/hatred of all things "debate or moot court," including their accompanying cutthroat debaters - so the fact she made me like and feel for them says a lot about her writing style!Sam is wonderful. I just want to hold him. Amy is a good and complex character, but her self absorption, melodramatic, and (at times) downright bitchy tendencies veered toward exhausting. At one point she asks herself if she should focus more on observing others than only on herself and I screamed at my kindle app "Yes woman! For crying out loud. I know you can't hear me, but YES!" This shows how deeply you will become invested in Ms. Kent's characters, including the risks she takes in challenging the readers with her characters' imperfections.Amy's negative traits eventually turned into a self awareness that I appreciated. She grew as a character and I never felt like she was inauthentic. She also started off being mean to Darla which turned me off her for a while. But that is because I have a protective love of Darla that is probably bizarre for person to have for a fictional character - but I won't question it! This response to Darla added conflict and also gave them both a chance to evolve through their responses to each other, which I liked.Overall, this is a great second book and I can't wait for #3 (and hopefully even more)!