Review: Good as Young Adult, But Not New Adult Genre
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2013
This isn't a bad book. I just have some problems with it that added up quickly.First of these issues- this- in my mind- is not in the New Adult category. She may have graduated early, but she is still at a high school mentality. The evidence of this is clear in the dialogue scenes, where there is an abundance of teen speak: OMG, BFF, convo, deets. And she graduated early? I'm in college, and I don't know anyone that still talks that way outside of a frat house. (Nothing personal against Greek life. Just my own experience.) As it was, the "convos" felt a bit forced. I think it's because the town in which it's set is something that I don't relate too. There's a lot of "first world" problems about rich kids that I'm not really sympathetic towards. Maybe it's just a sign of the times, but I don't enjoy listening to the upper class whine about such pointless things.Another part of this book that made it seem younger was the lack of sex. Now, I can respect clean romance and values in a book. But New Adult in general involves such content- it's what separates it from young adult and is why it's separating to a category of it's own, because it reaches beyond a teenage level to a more mature mindset. This might be young adult or clean romance, but to me the new adult title just doesn't work here.With all of those unpleasantries out of the way, I really do like the concept of this book. I can't say that enough. Protagonist Kelli is great at her job. She goes into insane details with her alibis, including plot points in the movie she names for a discussion topic, and the color nail polish used at a sleep over. She had a great business model, which is why I think the teen speak was such a disconnect. It didn't give her enough credit as a character.Between this apathy and the lack of mature situations, this just came off as dull. There was nothing either horrible or amazing about it. In my mind, it was just for a younger audience than myself with different life views. To me, it'll get lost among the other teen romances.If you are a YA reader who likes clean romance, by all means check this out. I sincerely hope you like it more than I did. But if you're accustomed to new adult reads like Beautiful Disaster or Easy, I think you'll be disappointed.Thanks to Netgalley and Flirt for the chance to read this title.