Review: A Really Fun Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2014
This review had to be shortened to fit within Amazon's maximum word count. For the full review and more, please visit markedbybooks.blogspot.comI absolutely adore how the story is introduced. I love that it started off with a memory from Megan's past before gliding right back into the present. Not only was the memory so much fun, but it was the perfect characterization right off the bat of the type of relationship Megan and Ben had. I can't imagine a better way to kick off this book.After reading the blurb, I was very nervous that the way them having sex was introduced would be weird, but it wasn't even a little bit. There was just enough attention paid to the fact that they were drunk, which I liked. This scene seemed very playful, making it feel more believable, and it ended at exactly the right moment, racking up some bonus points in my book.Overall, my general feeling for this book was that it started out fantastic, but then around halfway in, it started declining into the realm of just pretty good. A good example of this is how I feel about Megan. For starters, her mind just seems to go to weird places at the most inopportune of times. Also, her quick, guiltless jumps to Steven seemed really odd to me, and I was a little skeptical of how oblivious she was as to why Ben was acting the way he was during that whole period. I could tell that I would like Ben from the very beginning, so Megan's actions here, right after she had been unwittingly leading him on, were really painful to read.I will admit that this book was very cliché, but it's a light contemporary romance for crying out loud. That genre is the chick flick of literature. You don't go into it expecting to have your mind blown with the most unbelievable of plot twists, you go into it because you want something fun to read! And this book was fun, so I'd say it was a mission accomplished! The only times when I felt like there was a little too much "chick flick" were when the girls were talking about the wedding planning, or pretty much whenever Stephanie opened her mouth. It was no surprise that I didn't end up liking her, and while I understand why she was characterized the way she was, sometimes it just got a little overwhelming.And in the vein of this being a "fun" book, I would like to mention that sometimes the writing style didn't really seem like it fit. There was a very distinct lack of contractions used in both dialogue and regular text, so the prose always read as very formal. I never would have described Between Friends as extremely formal, so most of the time it just felt odd.Taylor