Okay, so I finished this one last night. I don’t know if I have my head fully wrapped around it, but I need a space to try to get my thoughts in order. First though, what is up with that cover? Is that supposed to be our hero, because he looks like a douchenozzle. Just a side note. Really though, so far I have loved Sarina Bowen’s books. She seems to be tackling the new genre of New Adult with aplomb in wonderfully combining romance with real issues all without too much melodrama.
This time we have the story of Lianne, awesome computer nerd/movie star, and Daniel/DJ, younger brother of one of the Harkness hockey stars and the team’s DJ. They had a meet cute in The Shameless Hour so their story builds from there. Lianne is also learning true independence for the first time this year and growing out of her shell. It’s a great story to tell. DJ’s is a lot harder. SPOILERS for anyone who wants to avoid them ahead: DJ has been accused of rape. It is stated very clearly from the beginning that he did not do such terrible things, but man it made it almost impossible for him to be a sympathetic character.
So as we know from previous books Ms. Bowen is a rockstar feminist author. thanks to books like Blonde Date and The Shameless Hour we know how she feels about slut shaming and turning the patriarchy on it’s head. Which is why this one felt so off. False accusations of rape are much rarer than people would like/do believe. There are lots of studies to back this up so it felt like a record scratch (I know the youngun’s might not get the reference, but the older folks should). DJ does not handle the situation well (I mean who honestly would), but what results is that the reader is constantly being told that he’s actually a good guy instead of being shown through regular action that he is. I tried to be very sympathetic to his plight, this is something that Mr. Beth Ellen and I have discussed pretty intensely as I have some crazy strong opinions one way, and he has attempted to explain the male side to me. So I continued to try to keep an open mind about this character. And I just never got there. I do not like him, and definitely don’t see me re-reading this. Which is sad, because I loved Lianne. I thought she had such a great character arc, but could never figure out why she was so attracted to a guy who kept blowing her off repeatedly.
But anywho, I think I’ve now rambled long enough. Loved Lianne, did not like DJ, and overall not quite sure how I feel about the book as a whole. Kudos to Ms. Bowen for not backing down from a tricky subject, but at the same time I think there are other topics that might be better to use in her novels.
