Only With YouRating: 4 of 5 stars
My Review:
Lauren Layne books always have such compelling characters. I kept telling myself I'd only stay up for a few minutes reading, but each session ended up being over an hour. Gray and Sophie were likable and vulnerable. Gray was socially inept while Sophie seemed to have nothing but social niceties – for a while, Gray didn't think she had anything deeper than that.
I felt so many things for these two. Sophie's sense of inadequacy really drove the book forward. We see all the things she's really good at, but no one (including herself) truly valued her contribution. Her family criticized her all the time, she was always in go-nowhere sorts of jobs, even her boyfriend dumped her for being too flighty.
When Sophie met Gray, he was exactly the opposite of her: quiet and stoic, very serious, totally grounded. I loved how he saw value in her and always called her on the way she'd belittle herself. I felt like we missed out on a bunch of his story. He seemed to have a lot of pain and motivations that didn't get hashed out in the book.
Most of the plot revolves around the misunderstandings and anger between Sophie and Gray. There were a couple times I wanted to smack them and tell them to stop being so petty and childish. But I also saw the realism behind it. It wasn't an over-the-top drama-fest. It was just people being stuck in their own heads. It kept me invested in the story and I had my fingers crossed that they could work things out.
But...the ending. Gosh, it bothered me. It felt like they had this big explosion; such a huge, nasty argument with both of them saying terrible things. Gray said and did some things that made Sophie feel so small again. It was pretty blatant and it felt really outside his personality. With all of the ways he built her up, he tore her down in seconds and I didn't feel like we saw what the cause was.
It's possible that there was introspection we didn't see. From the time of the argument until the make up, we didn't see anything in Gray's POV, so I honestly had no idea what was going through his head.
It just reminded me of some of the older contemporaries I used to read where the hero would be all “I can't possibly say 'I love you', unless I already know she loves me first”. Seriously. He didn't even say “I love you” during their make up scene. It was just sort-of assumed and he got off really easily because “he was damaged”.
So yes, Sophie grew and found her footing. Yay for her. She was a true and vulnerable character and I liked that she didn't rely on Gray to solve her problems. She fixed them on her own, started on a path that would make her happy, and even stood up for herself. I was glad for her. But I had a sour taste when she just accepted Gray back without him TOTALLY groveling, because he really needed to after the things he said.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I love the writing and I love the characterizations. But you might end up feeling dejected from the ending, like I was. It was one of those books that I felt I needed to make up my own ending to resolve my issues. I would have given it five stars if the ending was better. I still liked it enough to give it four stars.
I received a complementary ARC of this book from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
**This review is archived on my blog: The Theory of Lieto Fine
No comments:
Post a Comment