Review: 4.5 angsty stars. Loved Garrett!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 14, 2013
(Quote)Your touch is toxicYour heart's a messWhich is why you'll always beMy perfect regretRiley is Maysie's roomie we met in Bad Rep. She has gone from happy in a relationship to depressed and wallowing in self pity and bad love songs. Her boyfriend of one year, Damien has now dumped her and sent her reeling.(Quote)So, yeah, I've been in mourning. Not just for a year of my life wasted. But also the death of my dignity. Because it was currently taking a long vacation with my self-respect. And I'm pretty sure my confidence and backbone had stashed away in their luggage.Feeling lost and very drunk, she shares one night with Garrett, the guitarist for Generation Rejects who is her complete opposite. She thinks he is a pot smoking, partying, rock music playing, womanizing loser. She  is a good student, has goals, and has her life planned out. They normally fight whenever they are together anyway, and now she has an even bigger chip on her shoulder and he wants to knock it off. Their interactions are snarky and scathing. Their views of each other are harsh and they claim to not even like each other.Through difficult situations and pain, there are glimpses of what lies beneath and what they could be together. Their chemistry is hot, their feelings are intense and conflicted, and it takes awhile to dig into their layers to see beyond the sarcastic armor into the vulnerable people underneath."We've found something in each other that we want. Hell if I understand why. Out of all the fish in the sea, I had to hook you. One giant, snarly toothed piranha ready to bite my fingers off.'"You and me, on paper we're all wrong. But that's okay, because the reality is we just work. I don't know why. But we do..."This book was full of angst, denial, avoidance, pain and confusion. I seriously wanted to duck tape Riley's mouth shut at times or smack sense into her.  She really hid behind the barbs and sarcasm and I hated how she cut Garrett down.  Garrett did his share of verbal sparring and avoidance too, but the way she got his hopes up and then would break him just ripped my heart out. I loved the vulnerable, damaged, Garrett that just wanted to love her, be accepted, and be loved. Riley had a long road to figuring out what was really important in life. She had such preconceived ideas that she rebuffed anything different. Their path together was difficult, challenging, and heart breaking. But both characters changed and showed growth during the process.(Quote)Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.I have to admit that the first book, Bad Rep, drove me nuts since it was so negative and I was not a fan of Maysie at all. But in this one, I liked her. I realized I am now attached to her and the other characters. I was glad to see the continued story of Maysie and Jordan. Maysie really has matured and she did a great job handling Riley considering in the first book she was the one in the roller coaster of angst and depression. I really like her and Jordan together now. And enjoyed more with his band Generation Rejects. I hope we get more of this series with maybe Gracie (who had a big part in this book), Mitch, Cole, and Vivian. There are more stories to tell brewing under the surface.This was a well written, fast paced, funny, emotional, dramatic, and romantic. I love A. Meredith Walter's writing style and how complicated her characters are. This was a great follow up to Bad Rep. I actually enjoyed this one more.