★★★★★ 3
Steamy with Some Good Character Development, But a Little Cliche and Unbelievable
Format: Kindle
This book tells the story of Grace and (Johnny) Logan, a couple who hook up right away and then fall in love as Logan has to make up for the fact that he initially rejects the idea of getting more serious with Grace. The plot is pretty flimsy, although there is decent development of outside conflict, including Logan's alcoholic father and his struggles with his potential hockey career. There are some very steamy scenes--lots of them, actually-- and some cute moments, but in the end, this isn't a particularly memorable story.
To be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with this series (I read the first one, too). On one hand, I think Elle Kennedy is a good writer with a flair for dialogue who knows how to script a steamy love scene. She also does a solid job for the most part in fleshing out her main characters, even if supporting characters often seem like walking cliches ("The Overprotective Dad" vs "Alcoholic Dad"; "Rebellious Best Friend" vs. "Straight-Laced Best Friend"). There are a lot of genuinely funny lines, too, even if they're sometimes of the stereotypical frat boy variety (as a lot of the characters are stereotypical frat boys).
Speaking of stereotypical frat boys, this dovetails into what I hate about this series. I have to admit to not being a fan of the Greek system in general so that may be a bias that's affecting my reading experience, but there's something over-the-top and a little disconcerting about the way Kennedy depicts both the sex-fueled parties and the conversations between the guys about their sex lives. I'm not saying her portrayal of Greek life is entirely unrealistic, but the scenes have a cliched, obvious feel, and although she means to set a sexy tone, there's something icky about the way these guys get whatever they want, whenever they want it (and it's not just sex on demand, but apparently amazing sex with hot women on demand). All the guys are gorgeous horn dogs who get drunk but never seem to be anything less than smoking hot and cool. Oh, and apparently, all this partying doesn't negatively impact their training regimen). Most of the girls throw themselves at them, either alone or in pairs. Plus, in both books, I had some trouble believing that the heroines really hung out at frat parties and knew the athletes by name. Both Hannah and Grace (and even Ramona, for that matter) struck me as young women more apt to avoid frat parties and maybe hang with the multitude of other non-Greek members who populate a college campus and host off-campus parties. (To that end, how about a hook-up between one of these athletes/frat boys and a young women who has no interest in an athlete/frat boys? I went to a big school, and at least two thirds of the campus probably couldn't identify one athlete by name.)
Ultimately, I enjoyed aspects of this book and liked the main characters by the end of the novel (Logan wasn't that appealing for about half of the story, but I warmed to him eventually). And it definitely is more expertly plotted and well written than a lot of other NA novels out there. But if this series is to continue, I'd like to see the formula shaken up.
Grade: C+
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Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2016
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