Review: Bad for You isn't so Bad
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 1, 2014
Bad for You was definitely refreshing. Krit was HOT, Blythe (favorite female name of the series) was adorable, and the storyline was fast paced and to the point. While I've liked the recent books that have required a sequel or trilogy, it was wonderful to purchase a book from Glines where I could count on a solid ending again. There are several solid points that made me love this book and made it different from recent others by Glines, but there was also a significant flaw that kept me from giving the book five stars.I was going to try to keep this spoiler free, but I'm afraid I couldn't completely do it.Okay, so the first pro was reconnecting with past characters. I am in love with Amanda and Preston. I know there are a lot of Cage and Rush fans out there, but Preston is my man, and Amanda is the best girl because she's so sweet through her actions instead of definition. Therefore, I LOVED seeing them again and hearing about their lives. Then there was also a little bit of Low, lots of Trisha and Rock, and other past characters. They seemed realer when I get to see the progression they've gone through.Next pro was the way the relationship between Krit and Blythe grew. While the chemistry was thoroughly there, friendship made a beautiful appearance between them. Blythe really impressed me in this aspect. She made a connection with Krit in a way that was much more than sexual. What she said to Trisha about Krit during a nice heart-to-heart really strung my heart strings. I appreciated the slow build in this book.The final big pro was actually Linc (another really awesome name.) It wasn't that I really liked him it was that he didn't cause that many problems between Krit and Blythe. Glines uses jealousy a lot in her books. I mean it makes sense considering the fantastic alpha-males she creates, but it has gotten a little silly to introduce guys who are not the leads and are clearly only there for creation of jealousy and to make the heroine more attractive. What I appreciated with Bad for You is that Linc clearly never had a chance. He didn't cause a lot of drama, which meant that the couple meant to be could focus on other more significant reasons to be separated.The one big con I have for the book is the lack of background for Krit and the pastor who raised Blythe (a.k.a. her father.) We hear that Krit has had a sad past. Trisha agrees heavily with this. What really happened though? As much as I liked him, his man-whorish ways might have been more understandable with a flash or two into his childhood. There are also references to him having addiction problems. I was really interested in that. Kind of like, whoa, could Krit's obsessiveness over Blythe actually end up being too much? Then we find out he has ADHD and used to get meds for dealing with depression. Again, whoa, those are two big psychological problems that were dished out and left behind in the matter of a paragraph. Honestly, I didn't appreciate the possibility that Glines referenced these issues to just make the scenes more dramatic instead of actually applying them to the story. With the pastor, I didn't quite understand why he treated Blythe the way he did. There really wasn't a decent explanation, which left a sour taste in my mouth. I felt like Glines made Blythe's father ignore her just to create even more sympathy for Blythe.This book is supposed to be a fun, easy read. I expect and love that about Abbi Glines's books. That's why I happily give Bad for You four stars. I was intrigued, it was sexy and fun, and it panned out nicely. It was just the huge, hard topics that were sprinkled throughout it that made me uncomfortable because of the way there were handled. I mean we had verbal and physical abuse, addiction, minor death, self-esteem issues, daddy issues, psychological disorders, and possibly other problems I've forgotten about that were involved. It's not that Glines hasn't used these topics like these before, but having so many of them shoved inside one short book might have been too much. But in all honesty, I did enjoy the book. The characters were the best part, and in my opinion, that's the most important thing.