Throughout this book I was tossing and turning between 1 and 2 stars because, frankly, I didn't like it very much. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to like this book because, at first, Lucy's voice was interesting and snarky and pretty funny but that dropped off about a quarter of the way in. I'll break it down.
The Plot
It was there alright. It was THERE and THERE and OMG and oh wait, no it's okay now but then OMG IT'S REALLY NOT. The start of the book I was thinking, alright, here we go, another sexed up teen romance. But not really, because despite Jude being like 'No, don't love me, I'm fucked up' and then making a sleazy, horny comment and that turning Lucy from a panting puddle of goo to a raging psycho, it took just a dog house and a nice quiet family dinner for them to be making out and Lucy going on about how she could make out with this guy forever. Until he gets arrested.
I felt like the book just spiraled out of control there. They met up again at school, started going out, practically yelling their devotions to the teen-melodrama gods and, oh, deja vu, he gets arrested again. I was scoffing and rolling my eyes all over the place.
By the end, we'd had about five inspirational speeches, either about devotional love or something equally boring.
I got bored pretty quickly. I did finish it though, if that's a plus.
The Characters
Lucy: Little bit of wtf-ery here because, I mean, Lucy has a few screws loose. Firstly, she's got the whole Mary-Sue Syndrome downpat - there are guys falling over her apparent hotness all over the place. She's an amazing dancer (though we don't actually have any evidence until about 3/4 of the way through) AND she came from a private school before going to the public school and getting straight A's! Wow.
Lucy is also incredibly easily swayed and has no brains whatsoever. She meets Jude, bad things happen and A POOR INNOCENT DOG DIES and yet when he turns up again, she's all over him. Then more bad things happen and she's sad and then it just takes a couple explanations and some near sex to get them together again. THEN, she's turns psycho and listens to her stalker (Sawyer the Stalker) and decides to follow him around the place and more bad things happen and she's super super sad and can't talk to him because she told him to go away and there's no trust and yet, when she sees him next, she's all like, WTF, why aren't you talking to me? Then some extra bad things happen but he saves her and they're super happy and all ripping each other's clothes off but then ANOTHER bad thing happens and everything sucks and she can't talk to him and then he public declares his love for her and she runs off to uni and they see each other at a party and everything's happy again! YAY.
And it's the same for Sawyer the Stalker. He's following her around with his perfect looks, money and personality (cough cough) trying to woo her with his charm and she's all like, no no, go away I'm in love with Mr Psycho Jude over here and he's like oh, okay. Lots of bad things happen but they start going out even though she doesn't really like him and she's all for Jude. But that's okay until he nearly does something super super bad. So that's the end of Sawyer the Stalker.
Point is, after that entire fairly ambiguous break down of the story is that - LUCY HAS NO BRAINS.
Jude: I ended up liking him more than Lucy (only just) because at least he had the sympathy factor but he was still fairly cray cray and yes, I get that some people might find criminals hot, but he just got too much. Way too overprotective and not smart and just ugh. Also, despite being crazy at least he can play football. You know, because he's super tall and strong and can just pick up a footy and sprint down a field, tossing aside other people like toothpicks in the process. Obviously.
I didn't like this book but that's not to say it wasn't entertaining. So if you like criminals and dumb girls and bad things, then read it, because trust me, it excels at being OTT. Plus, there are still good elements to this book so it really depends on what you like.
