Review: Very short, felt rushed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 17, 2012
This is a very short story at 300 Kindle locations. Can be read in 15 minutes. I don't mind short stories if they're well done, but this one just felt too short. It felt rushed, like a bunch of important details were missing and a whole lot of information was dumped on the reader too quickly. Because of this, I couldn't connect with the characters and there didn't seem to be any genuine emotion between them -- attraction, yes, but certainly not love.Dr Alec Knight is consistently mean and insulting to his students, especially Holly Day, whom he sneeringly makes fun of by calling her "Ms Holiday". Despite this, Holly somehow believes that his harsh, unfriendly exterior is a mask and that there is something good buried beneath. Perhaps this is what she prefers to believe, since she also thinks he's "sexier than hell" (yes, that's a direct quote from the book) and daydreams about being with him in... you know... THAT way. This attraction reduces her to a stammering idiot whenever he turns his attention to her in class and asks her a question, resulting in further humiliating words being thrown her way. One day he goes too far and snarkily suggests that she's hopelessly in love with him and wants to jump his bones. That's when she loses it. She answers him back and tells him that although she didn't want to believe it, she's now convinced that he's as bad as everybody says he is.I liked this beginning. I had a good feeling about the story when I read this part of it, because Holly was fiesty (how many people would tell their professor off for unprofessional behaviour?). I couldn't quite understand why she felt that Alec's mean jerk behaviour was just a facade, but I was willing to run with it, since at times we do instinctively or intuitively sense certain things about certain people.Unfortunately, the story went downhill from there. During Christmas break, Alec and Holly run into each other on campus and begin to talk. All it takes is a few minutes of conversation between the two, and the story wraps up with a happy ending. The resolution felt exceedingly rushed, and Alec acted completely out of character in saying the things he did, which added to my dissatisfaction.Despite the problems I had with this particular story, I think the author has potential as the general writing is good. I would check out her other works to give her a second chance. Probably something longer next time, though.***SPOILERS AHEAD***It turns out that Alec had been so nasty to Holly because he fancied her. He'd made up his mind not to get involved with anyone, and she tempted him to forget his decision. Okay, so he had good reason, with his past, to want to stay alone. But to then take it out on her because he couldn't help himself from fancying her? That's lame, that's not romantic fiction hero material.Never mind, he can redeem himself, right? So I read on and then suddenly they are having a personal conversation and he is telling her about his background and why he has chosen to be such a beast. I get the reason why, but I just don't think it was necessary to be so mean and nasty and why Alec did think it was necessary was not adequately explained. This was the most important part of the whole story and the author dealt with it in a single paragraph. As a result, instead of nodding and empathising with Alec, I shook my head and wondered, "That's all there is to it?"Alec spilling his guts to Holly was also out of character because he's been such a tightly controlled person for so many years, it isn't believable that he would suddenly drop his guard and open himself up like that. It could happen if something significant had happened that made him decide to share -- either internally, like a strong emotion, or externally, like a cataclysmic incident -- but this wasn't portrayed in the author's writing. Alec's a strong guy! Something has to make him break. It's like we have all this build-up in the story, and then things just fizzle out.So after Alec lets Holly in on his secret, she is encouraging him not to let the past hold him back, and telling him she wants to marry him and have children with him. Excuse me? Did I miss something? You sit in a professor's class for three months, he's unfailingly nasty and insulting to you every day, in front of all your classmates, and yet you decide you want to marry him and have his children? Are you a masochist???Overall, this story was highly disappointing. I'm giving it 3 stars because it was generally well-written, did have some entertainment value, and I liked the bold and feisty heroine (although Holly seemed almost TOO perfect and angelic!).