Review: Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books
Where did you get book: e-ARC from publisher
Release date: Out now

Review: Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Where did you get the book: e-ARC from publisher

Release date: Out now

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions–it’s her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family’s racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin’s college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she’s sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He’s joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin’s heart with longing. Now she’s not just imagining what might have been. She’s writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.

*blurb taken from Goodreads*

I’m a big fan of Jennifer Echols, and her past books are favourites of mine, but for me, Love Story disappointed and I was left feeling really unsatisfied as a reader.

I found the beginning to be quite choppy and quite slow, and I had to put the book down because I was forcing myself to carry on reading, and I think it was because of the characters. I couldn’t engage with them because I could not figure out what was going on between them in the beginning, and the premise of the rich girl playing poor in New York failed to garner any sympathy for me. In fact, the whole premise of the heroine being a heiress of a ranch, and the poor but now rich stableboy felt like a throwback romance from the 90s but with teens as protagonists.

Throughout the story, we see Hunter and Erin argue, then pine for one another, then more arguing, and I honestly didn’t know whether if they were coming or going. The way in which their feelings were told through their creative writing class I didn’t get, and I felt that took away from the development between their characters. I couldn’t get a handle on Erin for the most part, and I felt as if both Erin and Hunter were too calculating. I really got into the story though when they both went back home, and both Erin and Hunter seemed to be so much more carefree and I really enjoyed how they interacted with one another. But then more drama happens, and I found myself thinking this is way too overwrought and too much is happening.

Then the latter part of the book became even more over the top, and when I got to the last page, I said to myself this is it? After all that’s happened, there is no satisfying conclusion? I felt cheated because of all the drama that took place, I thought the ending could have been so much stronger. Even when writing this review, I feel as if I haven’t explained the characters of Erin and Hunter well, and that’s because as a reader, I could not understand them myself and had a hard time figuring them out.

And there was a line in the book that had me going huh, really? This is a spoiler so be warned.

[spoiler]Hunter volunteers as a orderly in the hospital because he wants to go to med school, and the reason he does this because, and I quote:

“I’m a white male, so I need all the help I can get for admission to med school. The assumption is that if you’re a white male, you’ve had every advantage.”

Now, my head is still boggled over that line and I thought it was such a strange comment for the character to make. I mean, poor white guy… \end sarcasm[/spoiler]

All in all, Love Story I found to be a confusing read — though Jennifer Echols wrote great secondary characters, and I thought they were the strongest part of the story, but I found the romance to be very lacking and all the drama just too confusing.

I give Love Story a D+