Review: Had Potential...
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 29, 2013
***NOTE:  May contain some spoilers.***As much as I'd like to write a good review for this book, I can't.  The storyline had so much potential, but fell short of delivering what I had hope would be a sweet reunion between childhood friends.  See You Soon centered around childhood friends Jimmy and Tess who grew up together in small town USA, but Tess later departed for New York City to pursue her dreams leaving behind unspoken feelings between she and Jimmy.  Due to unfortunate circumstances in Jimmy's life, he had to stay in his home town to care for his mother and sister in the aftermath of Tess' departure.  After four years, Jimmy got discovered as a musician and went to New York to pursue his career.  Low and behold, Tess and he ended up reuniting in an unexpected way.Through the course of the book, I got a glimpse of how emotional it is was both characters to see each other and interact again.  It really was sweet, but I had a major problem with how Tess was portrayed.  I did NOT like her as the main character.  She was 24 years old with a successful career writing for an acclaimed newspaper, yet her character acted like she was still 10 years old.  The "pouts" were annoying and the fact that Tess jumped to conclusions about Jimmy and Jennifer were extremely overplayed.  If she had acted like an adult, Tess could have communicated better with Jimmy to realize that he was in love with her (this was no spoiler nor secret as we know this from the start of the book).  Instead, the majority of the book focused on her misconceptions of Jimmy and his feelings as well as treating him badly without even giving him a chance to explain himself.  Also, I felt that Tess' character development lacked growth, because by the end of the book, she was still pouting and what made her finally realize her feelings for Jimmy was due to someone else spelling it out for her.  Add to Tess being incredibly idiotic, immature, and selfish about the way she handled Jennifer with the Joey situation.  All I have say about the Joey situation is that it seemed unrealistic, yet in this book, the main character ignored warnings that Joey was a registered sex offender and still met with him (how smart, right?)  I understand this is fiction, but it still bothers me how authors spin in unrealistic events even in a fictional novel.  At least make it somewhat believable especially when you want your protagonist to be likable (which Tess really was not).  At least Jimmy and Jennifer were enjoyable to follow, but I wish the author had allowed Tess and Jimmy's relationship to develop naturally without the unrealistic Joey incident and Tess' immature behavior.  After all, they hadn't seen or spoke to each other in four years, it would have been nice to have seen how much more growth and depth their relationship could have been without the extra fillers.  I enjoy the sweet childhood friends turn to lovers storyline, but found the anti-climatic drama to be quite unnecessary.