Confession of a Book Junkie: YA Romance

Showing posts with label YA Romance. Show all posts

Bad Rep - A. Meredith Walters

Maysie Ardin is soaking up the summer before her junior year of college, shopping, hanging by the pool and shopping some more. But when her black belt in spending lands her in trouble with her parents, she is forced to take a second job at a local bar to dig herself out of a deep financial pit.

She thought she’d be miserable. But then Maysie didn’t count on Jordan Levitt, the hot, pierced and tattooed, drum playing bartender who also happens to be very interested in her. And the feelings are totally mutual.

It had the makings of the perfect romantic set up. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy has girlfriend? Okay, maybe not.

But attraction is a hard thing to ignore and soon Jordan and Maysie find themselves in the middle of a gossip induced firestorm. Maysie has to learn whether she can set aside her fear of public disapproval in order to be with the one she wants. Or will she let the opinions of others dictate her life and her heart?

Rating: ★☆★☆
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(current Pricing Amazon 0.99)
Version Read: Kindle

This book reminded me of a cross between Beautiful Disaster and My Favorite Mistake. But it was still unique enough to be on it's own. While I was torn between 3 1/2 or 4 stars, I decided to round up. Masyie and Jordan have a lot of sexy moments and very tender moments, all wrapped up in what seems to be the drama of being attracted to someone you shouldn't, but fate has a different idea for you. Even though the description states something about Maysie and her spending habits, it's really just a blip in the whole story, enough to get the ball rolling where she has to take a job to basically to keep up with Joneses. So don't let that turn you off.

The story in itself is a story about learning to standing up for yourself. Finding that it doesn't matter what others think of you but rather what you think of yourself. It also shows how bad group mentality, bullying and rumors can be vicious, although again this is just a side blip. It's a coming into yourself story, that includes self forgiveness, realization, and learning not to hide but rather stay and fight. But....

The only thing that seriously bothered me was the "guilt" in this story. It almost seemed to focused on, making it almost annoyingly frustrating in some parts. I couldn't understand why, if she understood her issues, had a friend to help her point out her issues, the same issues of self esteem kept coming back into focus over the same subject in several chapters, why she couldn't help herself and do something to get past it or honestly, professional help. At some point you almost think she might actually be happy there instead of just lost. (If you have read Dublin Street, it almost to that point, but magnified.) You just wanted to shout enough already, yes this and this happened, but it doesn't make you this horrible person that you think chapter...after chapter....after chapter, literally. Even when Jordan is blatantly honest with her at one point, baring his soul, she whips something out of left field and then basically stands there and lets him go because of herself. In a way she seemed selfish, but with legitimate reasons that I think could have been solved sooner in the story.

While it is told in first person, I really think it would have benefited from a third person POV as most of the time you have no idea what is going on with Jordan, or how the situation is effecting him. I say this because in some sense while he seems sympathetic to Masyie's plight, he's almost oblivious to the harsh nature of the way she's being treated. There's no way if the campus was that small that he wouldn't have at least heard or seen something that would have tipped him off to the backstabbing she was going through.

With that said, I didn't like the story immensely. The ending was good, even if the self-realization was a tad rushed. Jordan was sweet and romantic wrapped up in a Alpha male. The sex scenes had me fanning myself several times. They weren't overly done or graphic, but just right enough to be hot. Again his POV would have been nice because of the sheer nature of the relationship as well as the main situation storyline of the book. It was worth read and I will re-read it. at it's price on Amazon, it's worth it. I was involved in the characters lives. I sympathized with them and their choices. That is the reason I starred up instead of down. Would I recommend it? Absolutely as I think we can all identify in one way or another.

Beautiful Disaster - Jamie McGuire

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“The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend America, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand. Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the charming college co-ed. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his charms, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’ apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.”

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Rating: 4 1/2 bookmarks

Genre: YA Romance (I would say 17+)

While this story could be classified as a classic good girl meets bad boy, in a sense it is and it isn’t. Set in a college setting where is a sort of unofficial (illegal) UFC setup where the two main characters cross paths. The college aspect plays a small role in the story line, but not a huge one as it revolves around the H/h more and their relationship. (I will say the book is in first person, but there’s a book coming out in Maddox’s POV. This also seems to be a new trend as I will list another series where the books are written from both characters POV in the first person. I have to say that since reading both POVs I can’t wait for this one. It makes it infinitely more interesting see on the other side of the fence. You can read the first chapter on Ms. McGuire’s Facebook. I recommend it as it already shows promise! The book is called Walking Disaster and is due out April 2013 but available for pre-order.)

There’s more to Abby, aka Pigeon, than first meets the eye. Although she presents the epitome of Miss Snobby Prim and Proper, there’s a reason for it there and about half way through the book you find out why. Enter Travis Maddox. He’s the local bad boy. Travis, or Maddox as he goes by, is the stereotypical bad boy who sleeps with anything female, has two legs and walks. The two find a mutual attraction, but in this scenario the guy is more invested than the girl. Deciding that friendship is better than nothing, he is ‘friend zoned’ at the beginning, but after some time the relationship evolves into something more.

Now I never like giving to much away, but I will say this book is definitely worth the read. As I said before this could be the typical good girl meets bad boy and then he’s reformed to happily ever after, but that’s not necessarily the formula in this book. While the boy in the book does, in a sense, need reforming, he does it all on his own (mostly) and the girl in this instance does as well. Not everything is all roses of course; there are issues that stem from both the relationship and people’s opinions, as well as decisions that are made by both characters.

The story doesn’t bog, but rather draws you in an you become invested in what will happen next. In a sense I sided with Maddox a bit more than Abby as he made more sense and at times Abby was a bit too closed off to really state what she was thinking. No man is a psychic, and more times than not I found myself thinking ‘just say it’! Also toward the end during the major issue that transpired between the two, I found while the lack of communication and insecurity was a tangible thing, it almost became frustrating as it lasted for quite a bit of the story. I’m a firm believer in communication, and I think that if she would have just voiced her fears Maddox would have come around. It was almost as if his personality completely changed in a short amount of time, star struck or no. But seeing how I was invested in the characters, rooting, cheering and yelling at them, proved to me that the book hit the spot in me that made it a very good read. It passed this test and several times I found myself sighing as I remembered similar scenarios that occurred in the book with real life.

Another minor issue I had was the fighting in the cafeteria. Not the violence of it, because hey, boys fight, but rather that it was a college and there were NO repercussions. No authority figures (even the ones who witnessed it) said or did anything to discipline those involved. You would a least expect something like stopped by a professor, or called to the dean’s office or something to address that guys were getting their butts handed to them on school grounds, but nope, nothing.

Even with these minor complaints, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. I have seen where reviews have stated that violence is never ok, I agree with this statement, I think that the one instance they are speaking about in the cafeteria was more or less just a scene to show that Abby accepted Maddox bad tendencies and all. There is a part of her that also understands this side of his world, but that’s something that must be read in the book not to give too much away.

All in all it's a good read. I own it in both paper and ebook format. Although there a few issues, I thoroughly enjoyed it and can understand why there's a movie deal in the works.