Review: 4/5 Jenn @ Back Off My Books
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2014
Received ARC in return for a fair and honest reviewI really enjoyed the first book in the Infamous Series and through that book first was introduced to Amy.  I was eager to find where her story would go because Ellen's book gives an inkling of an idea of the cat and mouse chase game that would go on between Amy and James.Amy is vulgar, crass, and absolutely hilarious, there is no way around it.  That is Amy but she is also so much more.  She is a dear friend, one that loves fiercely.  She drowns herself in work, play and her friends.  Never allowing herself get tied down to one man because seeing a life with just one person is something that she can't fathom.  This is of course due to her own inner turmoil caused by tragedy in her life.  While I understand how everyone is affected differently by life events, what happened to her I couldn't reconcile with her complete shutdown of the idea of boyfriends.  While I wasn't 100% on board with the reasoning it was believable and satisfactory enough that I was able to groove with it.The early interaction between James and Amy are hilarious and build great tension. My personal favorite scene being at the bar, Amy dancing by herself and James making a move.  She turns his words back around on him and it was total "yeah! You go girl!" moment.  Once a truce, so to speak, is in acted it was great to see the friendship build between these too.  That is one of the greatest strengths I think in this book.  Not only is it filled with hilarious moments but the "relationship" is a slow build.  There is the build up from lust to chase to companionship to love.  This isn't a wham bam thank you ma'am situation and I applaud that.  This was a carefully crafted and built scenario that takes time, I mean a long time.  This made it believable and very much something i supported.  Also, the patience one man can have was astounding but melt your heart worthy!If you have read The Infamous Ellen James then you will not be disappointed because both Ellen, Trent and even Lizzy are once again within the pages, having their lives inner mixed with that of James and Amy.I will admit I felt the beginning of the book was a rocky start for me but by Chapter 6 I was invested and all in; by this point I felt like things smoothed out. My other problem I had was I felt like I was in Amy's head a bit too much at times.  This forced some scenes to drag down especially when it felt like things she was thinking were repeated a page later while we were still in her head.  It was nice to know everything she was thinking but it slowed the pace and had me trying to speed read some of those parts. Also, on a positive note (and this might be why the beginning was rocky) Amy's uses of swearing was pared back by around chapter 6, I felt, and woven in perfectly to the story to match her personality.  In the beginning it was quite overpowering as it seemed even more over the top than in The Infamous Ellen James (which for me felt like the perfect usage of the words for the type of book I expected) so the balance of losing the over the top vulgarity to the "just right" helped me transition better and find greater enjoyment in Amy.  Don't get me wrong, I loved her non filter, especially in TIEJ, but in the beginning it seemed so much it took away from the story being told, but Alcorn found her and Amy's groove soon after.If you have read The Infamous Ellen James I think you will enjoy getting in to Amy's head.  If you haven't yet you can read this one first and go back but you will be given major spoilers.  I would recommend reading this series for some great laughs and smiling.  I can't wait to find out what goes on in Lizzy's world.