Review: Torn between 4 stars and 5....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2014
I'm really torn on whether to give this 4 or 5 stars.On the one hand, the first 25-ish percent was a bit of a struggle. Olivia's excuses for an abusive boyfriend she wasn't even in love with annoyed me greatly. I disliked how she didn't even have a backbone with her fake friends. Somewhere around that mark I thought she was going to be a weak heroine and I debated not finishing, but it's not like it's a long book, so I soldiered on.I'm really glad I did. By 34% I was warming to Olivia. Shortly afterward, I liked her, even though her particular faults often annoyed me.For example--and the best one I can give, since I had to put the book down for a while after this paragraph: There are a lot of reasons women stay with abusers, make excuses for them, try to "manage" them instead of dumping them like they should. I know this. I get it. Typically it's love; love can make you excruciatingly stupid. Sometimes, also stupid, you want to "fix" him or help him. Sometimes it's not about love, even if you try to cling to that, it's about security. Maybe you live together and don't know where you'll go. Maybe all your friends are his friends and your family loves him/you love his family and don't want to be alone in the world/lose everything.These are not necessarily good reasons, because there is no good reason to stay with someone who abuses you, but they are excuses you can at least somewhat understand.The single worst reason I have ever heard to stay with your abusive boyfriend that you don't really love anymore?"If I walked away from him now without giving him a chance to open up to me about whatever demons he was wrestling, what kind of person would that make me?"Fury. So much fury. Bash inwardly mocks the "Maury Povich" response of "But I LOVE him!" but you know what, at least that chick is owning it. At least she's saying, "I'm being an idiot about this because even though I shouldn't, I am still very much emotionally invested in this jerk that I love."That, to me, is much more respectable and human than, "I'm going to give him another chance because I want to be a good person."WHAT ABOUT THAT MAKES YOU A GOOD PERSON? Nothing! It makes you an idiot, but it doesn't give you any good person points. You're not doing anyone else any favors by being with this sociopath. You don't owe this guy anything. These are not reasons to be with someone, let alone stay with someone who hurts you. Just no.So that obviously made me mad. Worst abuse-excuse ever.But the fact that I still liked Olivia despite this is testimony to her character; I am very particular about my heroines, and she could have easily entered extremely-frustrating-heroine status and become really unlikeable, but she didn't.Aside from all that abuse-excuse crap, I really enjoyed this book. The characters were realistic, which I love, and Bash was really great. Every interaction was written so thoroughly that I could constantly see the characters as I was reading, see what they were wearing, what they were doing, how they were moving around the scene... I often fill in those blanks myself as I read, that doesn't bother me personally, but I really enjoyed the flow of this book. I liked Olivia's cute awkwardness around Bash. (Didn't love the name Bash, but I guess with guys out there named Sculpt and Horse and Picnic, I shouldn't complain about Bash, lol.)I also think the book covers are spot on! The character descriptions fit the covers completely, so good job there!I don't normally like serials, and there is a cliffhanger ending, but since all three serials are already out... it isn't much of an issue.Definitely going to check out the next book to see what happens, and then when I get time, I'm going to read some more Christine Bell. :)