Release Date: May 10, 2016
Publisher: Forever Yours
Pages: 281
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Academic/College
*I received this book as a NetGalley ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Summary
Hadley saved my life...and I ruined hers.
Hadley's my best friend. We share a house, our friends, a life. She knows all my secrets...except one. My desperate need for her is inked on my body, it's the best I can do. But Hadley needs to hear the words...
Growing up as foster kids, Hadley made me feel whole-sane. And what did I do? I destroyed our chance to be together. I ran out on Hadley when I should have stayed, and something broke between us. Now I'll do anything to fix it.
I'll never leave her again. I won't ever let her feel afraid again. But the more I try to protect her from my pain, the more I just make things worse. I'm terrified that if I tell her everything, she'll never forgive me. I'm even more terrified that it may be too late to make her mine. I have to try to give her what she needs...it's a debt I'm determined to repay. -Goodreads description
The Rundown
Ummm...hmmm....
I still haven't exactly figured out what the debt is. Or if it was a lot of things.
I just couldn't figure this book out. Nothing was clear and the plot was all over the place. I feel like this book was trying to be too many things at once.
The characters were more or less just names on a page. Aside from tattoos and piercings, I couldn't tell you what Josh looks like. As for Hadley...dark hair and dark eyes? Probably the most described character was Asha, but she was introduced out of nowhere that though she was the most likable character in the story, she didn't make sense.
Josh was extremely sexist. At one point he said he'd like to lock Hadley up in their house to protect her. What? If a guy ever says he wants to lock you up in a house: run!! Their relationship was more poisonous than romantic. And speaking of romance, the physical aspect of their relationship came out of nowhere. Like they had "the talk" while they were drunk and then all of sudden were intimate? Huh? Aside from a physical attraction and knowing each other since childhood, we didn't even get to know Hadley enough to figure out why Josh was so in love with her in the first place.
A tree house, a Peter Pan reference, and a benign tumor later (if you read the book this'll make sense...or maybe it'll all just leave you scratching your head too) I was just baffled. But they got a happy ending/beginning? I guess?
The book isn't a total loss. The descriptions of mental illnesses suffered by Hadley and Josh were realistic. It also shined a light on the darker side of the foster care system and the lasting damages of sexual abuse. I just wish the author would have spent more time on character development and a less busy plot. I'd be totally willing to read another book by Tyler King, but this one just wasn't for me.
Rating: 2 Stars. Meh, not for me.
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