Review: Great second book to the series!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2013
Jessica Norton is coming off what she thought was the most ingenious game ever. The club she started back at UCI was focused solely on making members of the male gender pay for their two-timing, heart-breaking ways. The game didn't turn out exactly how Jessica planned. She certainly didn't intend to find herself friendless, miserable, and still heartbroken over Taylor.The absolute definition of lost, Jessica jumps from one quick fix, one plan, one game to another. She thinks she's after one thing, knowing once and for all why Taylor abandoned her with no explanation, but deep down she questions what she's really after.Having previously read the first book in this series, Guys are Props, and experiencing Jessica's unparalleled near-evil tricks and games, I wasn't so sure about her being the star of her own book. I wasn't sure how Seymour would be able to pull off taking the backstabbing temptress from book one and make readers care about her enough to follow her story. It only took a few pages before the deeper sides of Jessica that were hinted at in book one dawned front and center. I found myself immediately connecting with the lost girl, and despite the fact that her less than stellar situation was almost entirely of her own making, I wanted to see her succeed in figuring her life out and finding happiness again.The arch of the story was bumpy as far as Jessica's journey goes, but seamless when you're talking about writing and development. Every time Jessica seemed to be getting closer to what she wanted, an agonizing twist would put her two steps back. Even though Jessica definitely has some traits that can turn people off, when she finally starts making an effort to change, readers will want to root her on.  I think readers will find it hard to stop reading once they start.The main conflict of the book lies between Jessica and Taylor. Jessica is desperate to figure out what went wrong, how she ended up alone when she would have done anything for Taylor. Taylor, on the other hand seems completely in capable of figuring out what he wants. He vacillates between intense desire for Jessica and near hatred. Understandably, this is frustrating for Jessica on many levels, but Jessica wasn't the only one frustrated.Really, my main qualm with this story was that I had a very hard time liking Taylor. He comes off as extremely egocentric and almost frightening in some instances. At times, I wasn't sure I wanted Jessica to find her way back to Taylor. What was also frustrating, though, was that though the majority of the book Jessica never even considered that she didn't deserve to be treated the way Taylor was treating her, especially given the fact that he left her. All she could think of was getting him back. I do understand that Jessica was struggling to find her strength in a few different areas and she wasn't really ready to see Taylor's faults, but combined with the fact that I found Taylor borderline unlikable through parts of the book, it was frustrating to me as a reader.Having said that, I never give away spoilers in reviews, but I was very pleased with how the story ended. I felt like the above frustrations were resolved very well and I was happy with the way the story resolved. I just would have liked to have been able to connect with Taylor a little more and been able to root for him as well as Jessica.This was a fun, quick read. Jessica is a great character who faces a myriad of situational and personal struggles that make her story a hard one to put down. I also enjoyed the secondary characters and I loved seeing had each one impacted Jessica's life. There is a decent amount of profanity in this book as well as some graphic sexual scenes, so it's definitely and 18+ only read.