Review: Recommended for fans of Take This Regret
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 2, 2014
Okay, this story is not at all what I expected from reading the blurb.I'm going to start with the good, because once I get to what I didn't like, ranting will likely ensue.My blood pressure shot through the roof more than a few times during my reading experience, and fair warning, if irresponsible deadbeat-dads raise your hackles, yours probably will, too.The first thing I will say for this book is that I read it all in one sitting. I had to step away a few times for the sake of eating and whatnot, but I basically didn't put this book down once I started it.Other than interrupting a tense, important scene early on to thread in back story (see below), I liked the flow. I felt sympathy toward Paige's character, and while I won't say I liked her (I'm very picky about heroines, and I would have loved for her to be stronger faster, but she is 18 and in a s***ty situation, so I'll give her a break) I didn't dislike her, and even when she irritated me, the responses were realistic). I saw the potential there for me to like her, I already root for her and wish she would make good decisions from here on out, even if I have little faith that she will in the next book.I liked Diane. I liked Paige's best friend, Erin, a marked improvement over most book heroine best friends.Now, in the beginning, the narration kept interrupting the building tension of the scene--between lines of dialogue--to feed backstory about football or some similarly irrelevant-to-the-moment tidbit. I don't care. I might need to know this, before or after would have been great (preferably before) but not smack dab in the middle of THE intense scene of the book. I want to be absorbed in this tense moment, not pulled out of it with these details.All right, now Mitch.I hate Mitch. He's irresponsible and pathetic. I have no further use for his character, which is why I personally will not be reading the book this is a prequel to. This is purely a matter of personal preference. I know that reading the book would make me angry, because when a guy is this big of a jerk when he finds out he's going to be a daddy and reacts the way Mitch did, it is not possible for that character to be redeemed in my eyes.If the next book was just Paige and her baby (or them and some new guy for Paige), I would read it, but...it isn't, so I won't. That said, I would certainly try something else by this author in a different series, I'm just not a fan of the whole "deadbeat daddy came back!" storyline. (For me personally, this book would be a 2-star based on my own enjoyment, but the book itself wasn't wholly at fault, and I felt the book deserved 2.5 to 3 stars.)Now. My biggest pet peeve in this book, which is the fault of the book, and which infuriated me.I waited until I was close to 35% before I started getting annoyed by this, because I understand that in the moment, people can be idiots, but then they usually come around and start being a normal person again, capable of taking responsibility for their own actions.That was not the case in this book.In this book, the "fault" of the pregnancy from the consensual sex between these two legally of age individuals rests solely on the shoulders of the female.The man is not responsible for what comes out of his disco stick. The woman is the only one responsible for protecting herself--and him, and if she fails to do that, it is all her fault, and she is an evil, conniving bitch.WHAT?! What nonsense is this?!?! Why is the woman the only one who needs to be held responsible?Now, what makes this unforgivably annoying is that this isn't just a short-held, knee-jerk reaction. No. This is reinforced, not only by him and his friends and her mom--WHAT?--and whomever else, but by the female in question! She's so sorry! She wants to apologize to him--again, I could understand this initially, emotions go haywire, you're not thinking clearly, your world has just been turned upside down... I.Get.That. But then, after even months have passed, it should occur to you, THIS GUY IS AWFUL. HE SUCKS. And sometimes you love awful d-bags, and I get that, too. BUT I kept waiting for Paige to get mad for more than a minute, to get furious that this idiot who knocked her up and helped derail her life was putting ALL of the blame on HER when the prevention of pregnancy was EVERY BIT AS MUCH HIS RESPONSIBILITY AS IT WAS HERS. And if he didn't see it that way, he wasn't worth her time.This was reinforced all over the place. His obnoxious best friend--I think his name was Josh, I don't remember for sure, and I don't care, because he's the quintessential jerk guy friend, and I don't care about that character at all. He doesn't like women. Both of the guys view "females" as wily, man-obsessed, conniving potential villains. As far as these two catches see it, all womankind wants nothing more than to "trap" a guy to ruin his life--because, you know, it doesn't ruin our lives to get knocked up at 18. THAT's what we want! What else could we possibly want out of life, if not for these wonderful, charming princes?!Ugh, I won't say anymore on that, but I can't even tell you how much this portrayal infuriated me. I wouldn't have even taken issue if it was just one character who thought this way--some people DO think that way, so I would have called it realistic--but for ALL of them to feel that way...no. I'm not okay with that. It makes me dislike all of them.Highly recommended for fans of Take This Regret.Review also available at Land of Fiction Book Blog.