Review: Too much drama.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 04 14, 2014
I only finished reading this a couple of days ago, and disliked it enough to sit down afterwards and mentally plot out all the negative points I wanted to put into my review here.  However, it's such a bland and lacklustre story that I'm having trouble remembering what I wanted to write.I do remember having a big issue with Emma's stupidly prolonged fear of having Layla find out what's going on between her and Cole.  Emma's not a victim of abuse or in any way emotionally/mentally damaged from her past.  She's got no reason to be SO afraid of Layla (unless there was a scene in which Layla, perhaps, lit into Emma physically when they were children -- but like I said, there are no such scenes, no such explanations from Emma's past -- she's just 100% chicken).  She's meant to be a grown woman, mostly confident and assured (this is shown in her interactions with Cole, which -- when contrasted with the numerous flashback chapters -- serve to highlight how different she is from the awkward, shy child she once was). Yet she doesn't have the assertiveness or the basic problem-fixing skills to simply approach the problem people (Layla, her parents, Cole's parents) and just, y'know, ASK them if they have an issue with the relationship?No, instead we're treated to pages and pages and chapters upon chapters of Emma lying to and deceiving everyone, whilst Cole becomes increasingly frustrated by her refusal to act, and Layla ramps up her efforts to get into Cole's pants.  THAT is the driving force behind the plot.  THAT is the big friction-laden core.  Here's a hint:  it doesn't make for good storytelling.  It is boring, long-winded, and tedious.  Something that might have made a good mini-conflict in a single chapter instead becomes the entire focal point of the whole book, and ruined whatever enjoyment I might otherwise have gotten from it.Cole and Emma, meanwhile, take turns at making misguided assumptions about each other's availability and loyalty -- again, more of the "adults behaving like children" theme.  It seems as though nobody in this book wants to approach issues head on, they prefer to tiptoe on eggshells around them instead.  This gets old, fast.I'm getting hungry, and those are the salient points, so let's wrap this up.  I wouldn't recommend this title.  The writing (mechanics-wise, i.e. spelling and grammar) is decent.  Everything else is utterly forgettable.