I think it's safe to say that I'm addicted to Judy's books. I am super thankful that all of her books are clean while still not shying away from difficult situations.

Tropes: enemies to lovers

Content: remembering loss of parent, kissing

4 Stars ( )

2.5 Stars

CW: Definitely read these as the book touches on a range of issues. Father is struggling with the loss of his wife and considers committing suicide to end his pain. Boy grieving death of mother from cancer, anxiety, verbally abusive boyfriend, domestic violence.

A formulaic romance with some serious issues thrown into the mix. As I said in an earlier post, cookie cutter romances aren’t a bad thing when it is done well. The elements that make some teen romance books more enjoyable than others are: the characters are interesting and have depth, amazing chemistry that leaps off the page, and dialogue that can be witty, intelligent, meaningful and romantic.

This book is an example of doing some of those things reasonably well. There was a bit of an instalove situation with ‘British boy’ and I was a bit annoyed at some of the supposed swoon worthy moments. At one point he said ‘thank you’ and Ashlyn gushed on and on about how amazing he was, and kind, and sweet and perfect. Ummmm......he just said 'thank you'. That's basically a requirement of being a civilised person. I didn’t really like how dependent Ashlyn’s life seemed on finding love and I definitely preferred Luke’s narration. It was, however, a good premise and I got caught up in the story.

I thought it was refreshing in a teen love story that two of the male characters were dealing with serious personal issues. They acknowledged that this negatively affected their behaviour towards other people and that their actions were wrong. Also, at one point the boys are discussing who gets to keep Ashlyn....um excuse me! I don't think anyone thinks the notion of owning women is in any way romantic. Am I right women?

Aside from those gripes, I think there was good chemistry between Ashlyn and Luke which made for an enjoyable read. ( )

Cute and Nice
It was a nice young adult book with a nice mix of inter sting characters, some conflicts and how it all ends.
I liked the lead characters. I felt most of the scenarios were somewhat believable. Also liked the fact that conflicts or misunderstandings did'nt go on for too long. So it wasn't a drag. When Luke knew what he was doing was wrong, he tried to stop. That was better than many books where the impersonation goes on and on and the reader gets tired of the conflict. ( )