The Beau & the Belle

So this book was tricky. It starts in the past, when Lauren is 17 and develops a crush on Beau, the 24-year-old law student renting an apartment from her parents. I could relate to this because what teenager hasn't had an embarrassing crush on an older guy? (Todd, if you're out there somewhere, sorry for being such a creeper back in the day!)

In the “past” portion of the book, Lauren's infatuation was seemingly one-sided. Beau never gave her any reason to believe he was into her, even when she literally throws herself at him. This is a good thing obviously because I'm not here for an adult dating a junior in high school. Then they're separated by a major event and we jump 10 years ahead. This is where I felt a disconnect in the story. There's really no build up when they meet again. We're just supposed to believe that they have been pining after each other for 10 years and then after a few weeks they're in love. Nope. I needed something more there.