Review: Great Short Story!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2013
So it's the time of year when I love to read stories from warmer places. If I can't go on vacation, then I love to read about places I'd LOVE to go on vacation if I could. This book definitely had that. This was a great read. It was also relatively short, so it would be PERFECT for the inevitable wait times that real life loves to bring.Thundering Luv follows Jewel, for the most part. Jewel has a ton of emotional baggage from a less than ideal family life. She is that girl in high school that all the boys love because she is everything they can't have. In fact, we find that several of the jocks turn her into a bit of a conquest, which inevitably caused more emotional baggage that she's not always sure how to handle.For the most part, this story takes place during Jewel's beach vacation with her friends. I definitely enjoy the interaction between her and her friends. Her relationships with her friends definitely remind me of my relationships with my friends from high school. It definitely took me back to a simpler time.Through a bit of an unfortunate attempt at opening a door to flirtation gone wrong, Jewel meets Colin, who is on vacation with his friend, Jake. Colin has a bit of emotional baggage too, so it was interesting to see how they'd react to each other.Colin walked into the story with a less than ideal opinion of Jewel, because one of her previous relationships had been with his cousin. Throughout the story, Colin has to sort out what she actually is versus what everyone thinks she is.Although they both tried extremely hard to deny it, they were immediately attracted to each other. One of the things that made me happy was that with all the emotional baggage, the story did progress as it otherwise should. However, it didn't progress too quickly. I liked that there was some restraint. With that much going on emotionally, I wouldn't have believed it without at least a small amount of restraint.Though this book took place over a vacation, I was surprised to see how much both Jewel and Colin grew emotionally in that short amount of time. I'm a firm believer in the idea that just because a story is short, that doesn't mean that there's no time for character growth. I was extremely happy to see that this author agrees with me.Another thing I loved about this story was that although this story was short, it certainly wasn't lacking. It didn't cut off too soon, and I was completely satisfied with where it ended. I didn't feel cheated out of a good story. But it was the perfect length for someone like me that doesn't always have infinite amounts of time to read.