Review: I adore this story!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2012
I absolutely adored this story! Evie has lived a very sheltered life because of an abusive father and bad family life in general despite the fact that her parents are well off and appear 'normal' on the outside. She's stuck under her parent's roof not because she's afraid to leave for herself, but for another reason I don't want to give away because it might be considered a spoiler. As the story starts she sees this guy Van whom she calls a `punk' talking with her neighbor. He catches her `spying' on him and attempts to start a conversation with her. She's nervous because she's been so sheltered and he's covered in tattoos, piercings and is about 6'5". She tries to go back into her house and ends up tripping on something in her yard and knocking herself out. The next thing she knows she's waking up on her mother's couch with him crouched on the end trying to stay far away from her (so he won't scare her). He stayed because he wanted to make sure she was okay. From there this story is about the two of them forming this amazing friendship. It starts off very tentatively and there are some miscommunications and adorable flirting along the way.Evie's inner dialogue is hilarious. She's so self deprecating and humorous and the type of person you want to be friends with. Some of the stuff she said had me laughing out loud. Despite the underlying comedy of Evie, there are some real life issues within this story and they weren't glossed over. But, those things weren't so intense that they took away from the balance of the blossoming and amazing romance between Evie and Van. The story is told completely from Evie's point of view and normally I like a balance between the male and female but in this case I never felt like I didn't know what Van was thinking. She might have had a few moments where she didn't realize what his intentions were because of her sheltered life, but as a reader I equally connected with Van and was never lost wondering what his intentions were toward her. This was an all around entertaining and very sexy read. Ms. Stein has a new fan!