Waiting On You by Kristan Higgins

Waiting On You
by Kristan Higgins
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
This was pretty much what you can expect from a Kristan Higgins book: good people that aren't all good, bad people that are more complicated than evil, a sweet romance, lots of friends, and some tears from you. Oh and also, staying up late to finish it. This was not one of the gut-heaving sob books like a couple of her others, but there were still tears...mostly happy, sweet tears.

Colleen was loud, brash and exuberant: everyone likes her. She's got a reputation of knowing people, helping them, and just being in-tune with everyone. And for the most part, it's so seamless throughout the story. She's far from perfect, but she's enjoyable. She's in-your-face caring about people but it felt like she didn't put herself out there much.

Lucas was all quiet and broody. He kept to himself, felt like he was always on the outside, even though he's super hot and everyone likes him. Their relationship problems were a lot of miscommunication/avoidance but it never got over-the-top annoying. Every situation was something you'd look at and think it could happen to you too.

But...I was really frustrated with how Colleen's sexuality was portrayed. At first it seemed like shejust flirts with everyone, but then somewhere along the line, the story changed to she's basically the town slut. I felt like it went from she's good at being friendly and everyone knew the score to she'd slept with any man in her age bracket but everyone still liked her. I don't know. I can't totally pin down what made me uncomfortable about it. We give men in romance novels a lot more leeway on how prolific their conquest list can be, but I feel like it wasn't an unfair standard of purity that was bothering me. Or maybe it was. Maybe it was that Colleen kept saying how everyone knew the score, but whenever a little extra tension was needed, one of her old conquests would throw it out there to embarrass her. It seemed like there was no other reason for it and was this half measure of trying to be sex-positive but still missing the point.

So yes, everyone in the story was flawed. Kristan Higgins turned a couple stereotypes on their heads, which was an interesting dynamic. The tears in this one were sweet and only right at the end. Everyone was redeemed and human at the end of the story. The bad guys weren't as bad as you'd expect, the good guys weren't as perfect as they appeared. But happiness still worked out, even if it was a little bit of brush-the-problems-under-the-bed instead of dealing with things head-on.

Although I liked Colleen and Lucas overall, I hated the way her sexuality was portrayed and I don't think I'll read this one again. It touched me and was happy at the end, but the emotions were a little farther away and lighter than some of the other books. But I still stayed up late two nights in a row because I couldn't put the book down.


**This review is archived on my blog: The Theory of Lieto Fine