Review: Mixed feelings about this one.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 4, 2014
“You’re here at PSU and it’s time to put your past behind you.”—CassidyIvy wants a fresh start in a new college far, far away from her small town and the viscous rumors and harassing following her after a car crash ruined her life. No guys. Except, when bad boy Jon Priestly comes into her life, she’s rethinking her no guys rule! She sees something more than his bad boy exterior. Two damaged people might be able to heal each other—if only they lay their wounds bare…“What looks perfect and normal on the outside can be very dysfunctional on the inside.”—IvyI have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I loved the banter and connection that Ivy and Jon had together. I found their dialogue funny and totally believable as to why they’d fall for each other. On the other hand, there were moments were it got too cheesy—like Jon being convinced that Ivy could see into his soul at the very first meeting and all that. To be fair, he writes song lyrics for fun so that may just be his artistic soul coming through. The book alternates between Ivy’s and Jon’s first person POV so we get to see both of their viewpoints, which I liked since I ended up liking Ivy a lot more after reading Jon’s POV.It took me a bit to warm up to these two characters. Although the start was a pretty good hook, they were a tad on the unlikable side until we got to know them better. For example, Jon got in a fight about someone not paying for weed, and I was like… I don’t really like my heroes peddling drugs. We later find out why but at the start it was kinda off-putting, that and the fact that he really comes off as man-whorish. Ivy just took a bit longer than usual for me to like her, but I didn’t really connect with them until much later—which made their romance seem cheesier than if I had been really into it at the start.The fun and light-hearted parts of the book were what I enjoyed the most in this book. For example, there aren’t jealous displays; instead there’s tickling like Ivy is confident enough to not be jealous and stake a claim. I actually really liked how laid back she could be and hated the fact that she couldn’t be as laid back as she wanted to because of the harassment and cyberstalking she fell victim to. The fact that Jon and she could become unguarded and have fun (even though they had fears and insecurities and had walls put up to protect themselves) was so great, and I loved that about the book.I also really liked how the author talked about normal fears and situations that could happen in college. You know—money, careers, class work, and also darker situations like campus attacks, controlling relationships, and stalking. The heat level was about the medium-high to high range although those scenes were pretty short and could have easily been fade-to-black—nothing really notable. I wasn’t too interested in the secondary characters except her roommate although it seemed like the author was setting up hints for future books starring some of the others. Happily, this one is standalone without a cliffhanger. Overall, this is a 3 out of 5 for me.(Originally posted on my blog; I received a Netgalley copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.)