Review: Cute but over the top in a couple places
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2014
Rating:  3 starsI liked it overall, but I felt it was a bit too much drama, drama, drama for me.  It starts with Mia going to spend the summer with a friend, Tessa, she hasn't seen in 9 years.  When they were kids, Tessa's older brother, Ben, was very mean to her, taunted her.  She absolutely doesn't want to see him again, but Tessa assures Mia he isn't around much and it will be fine.  That is a cute setup for a story.Well, then we get the unbelievable bit that Mia apparently is going to a bar, going to pick up a guy and get rid of her virginity.  She is 23 and just decides to do that all of a sudden the night before going to her friend's house?  Okay, it's a romance.  I can live with that plot.  Of course, in the bar, she happens upon Ben, who takes her home, neither recognizing the other.  The next morning, she leaves his house, still neither of them knowing who the other really is.  Unbelievable?  Yes, but still this is a romance we are talking about here ...They see each other again at Tessa's house and realize.  Then Ben tries to win her over.  This is kind of cute with flashbacks to how he was then, and him realizing how horrible he was.  He plots in his alpha way to make friends and get her to trust him.  The side characters are good.  It turns out Ben has a son, and that part is heartwarming to watch.  The middle of the story improved the book immensely.Then we get to the ending where within a couple hours Tessa's mom takes a turn for the worse and there is a dramatic event with Ben.  That is where drama comes in, and is way too over the top for the age of the characters for me, followed by some cheesy scenes that I just could not read without skimming.  All in all, 3 stars, new author, would try other books with caution.