erin
(no confirmed rating yet -- in the 4 star zone!)
"Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don't know how you ever lived without them"
HANNAH WELLS
Her story was very hard-hitting, especially since you find out almost immediately about how she was raped. Like, it's literally on the first page. I like that Elle Kennedy focused on injustice within the police force, about how so many rapists go unconvicted. While it's dissatisfying that we don't get to see Aaron go to prison, at least a person who helped him get off got punched in the face. I wish the fact that she wasn't able to have an orgasm wasn't sidelined though. I know it was "fixed" due to Garrett, but I wish it had been wrapped up more cleanly than what we got.
The whole thing with Garrett's dad asking her to break up with him reminded me of Fake Skating by Lynn Painter (yes, I know this book came out ten years before Fake Skating came out but I read Fake Skating first), but it was done a lot better in my opinion, because there genuinely was no way (that Hannah knew of) to explain to Garrett why she had to break up with him.
I really liked her character, she was very easy to root for. Like I said though, I wish her trauma was wrapped up better by the end of the book. It felt like there was character development, but it was sort of, like, undiscussed, in a way?
GARRETT GRAHAM
I'm sorry, but every time I see an ambitious MMC who wants nothing more than to be the best at their sport/job, I immediately think Johnny Kavanagh (from Boys of Tommen). The way he constantly called Hannah "baby" definitely added to this as well. But fortunately, Garrett wasn't like a complete blueprint, copy-and-paste of those ambitious male main characters either. He had depth because of his father, and also hockey wasn't his entire soul before he met Hannah. He had other things as well -- like him being a history major. It always makes me roll my eyes a little at the triteness of a guy who only has interest in a sport or their ambition and the only thing that can tear their eyes away is a girl. I'm glad that Garrett wasn't like that -- not completely anyway.
Similar to Hannah, I wish his trauma with his father had gotten wrapped up better than it did. I understand that he doesn't want to give his abuser the time of day, but it came off as lazy writing to me. I would've rather the book been a little longer to see his dad get what he deserves rather than it just end with his father standing by the bus, waiting.
OTHER
Logan: I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this guy. His book is next, and I got a sneak peek at his book, and he's still crushing on Hannah. Quite frankly, if I'm going to have to read a book where the first 50% is him pining after his best friend's girlfriend, I don't think I'm going to like it much.
Dean and Allie: I just want to say how excited I am for their book. I love Allie so far, and I'm intrigued about her dynamic with Dean as in the bonus chapter, she said she'd kill Dean in a game of fuck, marry, kill (between Garret's roommates). That's just interesting to me, and makes me wonder if they'll have a, like, enemies-to-lovers kinda thing? She's with Sean right now, so I'm interested to see how he's gonna go bye-bye.
Inconsistency: This is such a non-issue really, but this is just something that bothered me when I read it. Garrett said that if Hannah went to sleep on his couch (after the Breaking Bad binge-watch) that his drunk roommates (Dean, Logan, Tucker) would come home and "grope" her. Considering these are our LIs of the next books, I don't know how I feel about that. Especially when later on in the book, Garrett states he'd rather "rip his own dick off than force himself on someone". Would he not hold his friends to the same standards? I know that grope does not mean SA, but it does mean unwanted touch, and I'm not a big fan of that. However, grope also does mean "search blindly for something", so maybe that's what he was trying to say? I don't know, but I wasn't a big fan of the wording with it.
Spice: I'm not really a girl who enjoys spice, but I like that the first few sex scenes were at least important to the plot. I feel like after the fifth one I started rolling my eyes because, like, there are better ways of comforting each other than blowjobs, gang! But again, I'm not one who likes smut, so I know I'm not really the target audience for those scenes.
OVERALL
This book is definitely at least a four star, or maybe 3.75? I think as a couple, Hannah and Garrett are going to be hard to beat for my favourite, but for favourite characters, people aren't out of the running just yet. I've already spoken of my dislikes and a couple of things that irked me throughout the book, which is why it's not much higher than a four. I'm definitely excited for the next books, but I'm going to take a break to prepare myself for Logan's book because I'm just too irritated with him right now to go straight in to his book.
(no confirmed rating yet -- in the 4 star zone!)
"Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don't know how you ever lived without them"
HANNAH WELLS
Her story was very hard-hitting, especially since you find out almost immediately about how she was raped. Like, it's literally on the first page. I like that Elle Kennedy focused on injustice within the police force, about how so many rapists go unconvicted. While it's dissatisfying that we don't get to see Aaron go to prison, at least a person who helped him get off got punched in the face. I wish the fact that she wasn't able to have an orgasm wasn't sidelined though. I know it was "fixed" due to Garrett, but I wish it had been wrapped up more cleanly than what we got.
The whole thing with Garrett's dad asking her to break up with him reminded me of Fake Skating by Lynn Painter (yes, I know this book came out ten years before Fake Skating came out but I read Fake Skating first), but it was done a lot better in my opinion, because there genuinely was no way (that Hannah knew of) to explain to Garrett why she had to break up with him.
I really liked her character, she was very easy to root for. Like I said though, I wish her trauma was wrapped up better by the end of the book. It felt like there was character development, but it was sort of, like, undiscussed, in a way?
GARRETT GRAHAM
I'm sorry, but every time I see an ambitious MMC who wants nothing more than to be the best at their sport/job, I immediately think Johnny Kavanagh (from Boys of Tommen). The way he constantly called Hannah "baby" definitely added to this as well. But fortunately, Garrett wasn't like a complete blueprint, copy-and-paste of those ambitious male main characters either. He had depth because of his father, and also hockey wasn't his entire soul before he met Hannah. He had other things as well -- like him being a history major. It always makes me roll my eyes a little at the triteness of a guy who only has interest in a sport or their ambition and the only thing that can tear their eyes away is a girl. I'm glad that Garrett wasn't like that -- not completely anyway.
Similar to Hannah, I wish his trauma with his father had gotten wrapped up better than it did. I understand that he doesn't want to give his abuser the time of day, but it came off as lazy writing to me. I would've rather the book been a little longer to see his dad get what he deserves rather than it just end with his father standing by the bus, waiting.
OTHER
Logan: I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this guy. His book is next, and I got a sneak peek at his book, and he's still crushing on Hannah. Quite frankly, if I'm going to have to read a book where the first 50% is him pining after his best friend's girlfriend, I don't think I'm going to like it much.
Dean and Allie: I just want to say how excited I am for their book. I love Allie so far, and I'm intrigued about her dynamic with Dean as in the bonus chapter, she said she'd kill Dean in a game of fuck, marry, kill (between Garret's roommates). That's just interesting to me, and makes me wonder if they'll have a, like, enemies-to-lovers kinda thing? She's with Sean right now, so I'm interested to see how he's gonna go bye-bye.
Inconsistency: This is such a non-issue really, but this is just something that bothered me when I read it. Garrett said that if Hannah went to sleep on his couch (after the Breaking Bad binge-watch) that his drunk roommates (Dean, Logan, Tucker) would come home and "grope" her. Considering these are our LIs of the next books, I don't know how I feel about that. Especially when later on in the book, Garrett states he'd rather "rip his own dick off than force himself on someone". Would he not hold his friends to the same standards? I know that grope does not mean SA, but it does mean unwanted touch, and I'm not a big fan of that. However, grope also does mean "search blindly for something", so maybe that's what he was trying to say? I don't know, but I wasn't a big fan of the wording with it.
Spice: I'm not really a girl who enjoys spice, but I like that the first few sex scenes were at least important to the plot. I feel like after the fifth one I started rolling my eyes because, like, there are better ways of comforting each other than blowjobs, gang! But again, I'm not one who likes smut, so I know I'm not really the target audience for those scenes.
OVERALL
This book is definitely at least a four star, or maybe 3.75? I think as a couple, Hannah and Garrett are going to be hard to beat for my favourite, but for favourite characters, people aren't out of the running just yet. I've already spoken of my dislikes and a couple of things that irked me throughout the book, which is why it's not much higher than a four. I'm definitely excited for the next books, but I'm going to take a break to prepare myself for Logan's book because I'm just too irritated with him right now to go straight in to his book.