Review: Better then the first!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2013
Initially the reason I wanted to read this book was because of the cover. I'd heard about this authors works and I'd been meaning to read The Only Exception for a while now but it was never something that I felt compelled to pick up. But then I saw this book. And then I read what is was about and just had to read it. But even though this book is a companion novel to The Only Exception and it's not necessary to read the first book, I had to. It's something I'm weird about and I can never start any kind of series out of order. But to get to the point: I didn't really like The Only Exception. And that made me a bit nervous to read this one because I really wanted to like it. But I put my big girl pants on and started reading and...I loved it!To be honest, I'd never really paid much attention to Melanie in the previous book so I didn't really know much about her or what to expect. Until lately, Melanie had her life put together. She worked hard, studied even harder and hardly had time for anything else which seems to be perfectly fine with her. But I think it's because she doesn't have much of a social life that it puts her to a bit of a disadvantage. She's naive; at times she reminded me of a middle school student, especially when she first kissed John. She's constantly over thinking everything, always nervous and can never seem to just relax. Some would call her uptight. But she has her reasons. I really, really liked Melanie's character. For some reason I just felt so connected to her and a bit protective; probably because of how innocent she seems.Honestly, my first impression of John "John Boy"Walden was that he was a frat boy douche bag. It was so hard for me to not judge him because for the most part, you never really get a clear image of who he is. At least for me. I liked the little glimpses of a more deeper person but then he'd go right back to sexual innuendos and sexual banter. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for sexual banter but I have to feel like the hero isn't just using her as some sort of game. Eventually as the story goes on you can clearly see he has feelings over her and I loved how protective of her he became but a part of me was weary of him till the end. There were times when I honestly disliked him and it seemed like no matter what he did I just wouldn't give him a break. But I think it's because Melanie is such a great girl and deserves a guy who's going to treat her well; and I guess a part of me was worried John couldn't be that for her.This book wasn't really angsty but for some reason it had drove me crazy. My one complaint about this book is that I wish we got more details. Especially about John. There were all these hints of there being this messed up past but you never get to know anything about him outside of college. Overall I'm really happy I finally gave this author a chance and I look forward to reading more from her.*Received a copy as part of a blog tour and in exchange for an honest review.