Review: Great NA with just the right amount of angst and a whole lot of romance!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 21, 2014
3.5 StarsAlthough New Adult is not exactly my favorite genre, there are four reasons why I don’t totally cross it out of my reading list. Nowadays, I would only read a New Adult title if:✽ I read and enjoyed the author’s previous books.✽ The blurb interest me enough to not mind that it’s NA.✽ It has been recommended by reviewers/bloggers/readers I trust.✽ It’s anything but contemporary.This book falls under Reason #1. I first met Willa in Protecting What’s His, an adult romance novella that focused on the romance between Willa’s older sister Ginger and their new police officer neighbor. From this book, my first impression of Willa is a emotionally scarred, angry, potty-mouthed teenager that has had it rough growing up because of her irresponsible and uncaring mother. Protecting What’s His is also where she met and fell in love with her first boyfriend, a golden boy and all-around guy-next-door who is her exact opposite.Unfixable started a few years after the events of Protecting What’s His. Willa is now a young woman and a budding professional photographer. She has recently broken up with her long time boyfriend and has now arrived in Dublin, Ireland as a winner of a photography contest but she is also there to rebuild pieces of herself that she believes she lost in order to be the perfect girlfriend for her ex. It is there where she meets Shane Claymore, a broody Irishman with his share of struggles and demons who owns the family inn she was booked to stay in.The Good:✽ As I said above, Willa is in Ireland because she won a photography contest and she was actually sent there to take pictures of everyday life in the streets of Dublin for a magazine. I appreciate that at the beginning of the book, she actually ended up taking those pictures. Often times I see book premises that started the same as this but didn’t really end up happening once the romance started. Like students who got into college because of scholarships but I never see them study or working students that I never see work. It really annoys me when details like that get bypassed because of the romance.✽ I like that Willa had time to herself at the beginning of the book and she was able to experience Dublin on her own before forming a relationship with Shane. She just got out of a long-term relationship and she really needed some time to herself.✽ I like the fact that there’s no biatchy, scheming other woman bent on destroying the couple’s budding relationship. This is such a cliché in romance books that I’m just so sick of these characters.✽ I love that Shane is not a smirking, overconfident, rich playboy with a ton of one night stands. He is definitely an alpha male, and at the beginning a very grumpy one at that, but I appreciate that he’s not portrayed as some manwh0re. He has dreams, aspirations and actually work for a living. I’d rather read about a guy like that than some rich jerk who never worked hard for anything in his life.✽ Another thing that annoys me about NA is when main female characters transform into wanton smex-crazed addicts once they meet their love interest, no matter how badly they are being treated by them. Thankfully, Willa is not like that. This book definitely has plenty of steam between these two main characters but I think there was proper development before they got physical with each other and although there was instant attraction when they first met (on Willa’s side anyway), I’m thankful that there was no all-consuming insta-lust (which is another cliché in romance).✽ Shane is this big time F1 racer but we got to know him as a bartender working in his family inn and maybe some readers would’ve wanted to see more of him racing but I loved that Willa got to know him outside the glitz and glamour. For me, it somehow made their connection more real and sincere.✽ Again, there’s definite chemistry between Shane and Willa from the very beginning and I like how their was actual development in their relationship and it didn’t just comprise of a few steamy scenes. They actually had the chance to get to one another and share their demons and struggles withe each other. Steamy scenes can be hot, but there’s more to a relationship than chemistry.The Bad:✽ Now, this has nothing to do with Willa and Shane but more with the timeframe of Unfixable. I feel like the relationship happened too soon after Willa’s breakup with her ex-boyfriend. Prior to Shane, that was her first and biggest relationship and because of the timeframe, it felt like Shane’s just a rebound from that. For me, Willa never really got the chance to get over her ex properly.✽ Although I’m glad that the ex-boyfriend wasn’t totally villainized and became this horrible person, I feel like he shouldn’t be villainized at all for wanting to “fix” Willa in the first place. I’ve met him in Protecting What’s His and I never forgot how good he was for Willa then and because I already had a connection with him from the first book, I wished their relationship was given proper closure.✽ Minor Spoiler: I didn’t like how Shane demanded that Willa delete her ex-boyfriend’s number on her phone. That relationship happened before him and he has no right to demand that Willa forget all that and delete her first love completely from her life. She has every right to, but it has to be her own decision.The Okay:✽ I wish I also got to read Shane’s POV. I know this book is more about Willa’s journey of self-discovery but Shane’s struggles and family problems are pretty interesting as well and I think I would’ve connected with him more if I was able to see things from his point of view.✽ I had so-so connections with both main characters, I really rooted for their relationship but individually, I had difficulty connecting with their inner struggles.✽ The supporting characters weren’t stellar but they are all really likable and I especially enjoyed the family dynamics of everyone working and living in the Claymore Inn.Overall, I really enjoyed Unfixable because it was a continuing story of a character that I already have prior connection with. Don’t worry if you have not read Protecting What’s His though, this book can definitely be read as a standalone and the change in geography really helped in differentiating itself from the first book. If you are looking for a sweet, slightly angsty book with plenty of steam and romance between two strong main characters, then definitely give this book a shot.When I wrote this, an advance reader’s copy was provided by Entangled Embrace in exchange for an honest review. I have now purchased my own copy as this book is a definite re-read for me!