Review: Cute story & Title, had potential to be a lot more.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 2, 2013
Winning Back Ryan caught my attention and interest just with the title. I LOVE the title! There are so many possibilities a book could go in with a title like Winning Back Ryan. I couldn't wait to start and find out who this character Ryan is and why she must get him back.Right away the drama begins in the book. Anne is coming home from work after a bad day at the office; all she is looking forward to is eating the ice cream that is melting away in her shopping bag and spending the night with her boyfriend of two years Ryan. Anne comes home to their New Jersey apartment and is met with a surprise... Ryan is having sex with another woman IN THEIR BED! Scum bag! Anne blames herself and turns to her four best friends for advice; her best friends all happen to all be male.I really liked the idea of the story, but what I could never get passed was Anne blamed herself for Ryan being a cheater and cheating on her throughout their relationship. As soon as she catches Ryan in bed he immediately gives her a list of what is wrong with her and why he cheated. I immediately was rooting against them and hated the title because I didn't want Anne to win back Ryan. I wanted her to kick him in the balls and spit in his face! Anne has never been with anyone else but Ryan and has low self esteem. He played off that their entire relationship.Anne's best friends are four guys who are completely different & fun. They are all there for Anne in their own way helping her get through the disaster that is her relationship with Ryan. Brian is her closest friend who met in college on a blind date. There is a strong connection between the two and it was pretty evident right away Brian has feelings for her and Anne is completely blind to them. I really liked their friendship; it was sweet and I liked that there was long build up before anything is even talked about involving their feelings. Just listening to Anne cry about Ryan was annoying because he is such a creep!Ryan still plays a major part in Anne's life after finding out he cheated. I liked that he still played a part in the story, not that I liked the guy but they were together for two years and lived together, he can't just disappear from her life entirely. He comes clean about his real feelings toward the end involving Anne and Brian; not that I condone what he did but he should have talked to Anne before resulting to cheating.The book was very well written, I enjoyed the characters but I was expecting a little more out of the story. Anne talks about her religious upbringing and her self esteem issues and I would have liked to have read more about it because really those two things are why she is with Ryan and wants to keep his cheating butt. It was pushed to the side and I wanted more out of that storyline.I give Winning Back Ryan 3 Stars