Monday, July 7, 2014

Since Forever Ago: Olivia Besse

**ARC provided by author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

I'm going to be honest, this book was tough for me. The characters were frustrating, the plot line was pretty good. I got about half way through the book, and had to see if it was just me having a hard time. It was not. After reading that so many other people didn't like it, I was a bit disheartened. However, after reading what the author wanted people to get out of this book, and seeing why she wrote it the way she did, it makes a lot more sense. Going back into the book with a new perspective, it wasn't quite as bad. But it was still tough.

Riley (soon to be heart-breaker extraordinaire) was hard to understand. The author made a note that this book is supposed to be realistic, that this is what people this age act like. I do not act like this. But I have many friends who do. So, once I figured that out, it was comical, reading that she took all of the terrible advice (hilarious, terrible advice) that Max (the secretly interested loverboy) gave her.

Max was pretty easy to understand, he was effectively friend-zoned, and wants nothing more than to have Riley all for his own. The advice that he gives her is pretty funny; but his friends are what killed me. They did some things that had me actually laughing out loud. Max made some mistakes along the way, but overall, they were pretty small, and Riley overreacted (but she is a girl, and we tend to do that...a lot).

This book was well written, and once I got past wanting to slap the characters, I liked it. It was full of comedy that had me laughing awkwardly in public while staring at my phone. It had romance that was actually believable! And for each of the characters, I knew someone who acted exactly like them, which made it even more realistic for me. I will try to read this author in the future, but maybe this book was a bit too realistic for me.

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