Sunday, August 2, 2015

2 STAR #Review: My Favorite Mistake by @chel_c_cam

My Favorite Mistake by Chelsea M. Cameron
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Everyone expects to experience new things in college, but most don’t think one of those things will be a dorm-assigned roommate of the opposite sex. Taylor understood she lived in a co-ed dorm. She did not think that meant she’d open the door to find Hunter on the other side. Tattooed, guitar-carrying Hunter walks in and Taylor is immediately up in arms. When housing isn’t willing to re-assign Hunter, Taylor and Hunter agree on an unusual bet to determine if Hunter has to move out. Taylor must prove she loves or hates Hunter, to his satisfaction, and he’ll find another place to live. Until then, Taylor is stuck with him and his flirtation.

I am partial to new adult, contemporary romance stories with a little bit of darkness to them. But unfortunately, MY FAVORITE MISTAKE fell short. It had all the right ingredients, but it just didn’t work for me. For one, I found Taylor annoying. She punched Hunter within minutes of meeting him, and Hunter seemed to find that, as well as everything else, charming about her. Second, Taylor seemed to think the only way she could convince housing to remove Hunter from her room was to lie and say he’d sexually harassed her (which thankfully she wasn’t willing to do). However, she hints from the very beginning that she has experienced something dark of the sexual variety in her younger years and that information alone, if revealed to the head of housing, should have been clear grounds to find her another roommate. But it never seemed to occur to her to reveal this tidbit when she meets with the head of housing in a private meeting and is asked if this is a personality conflict or something more threatening. I understand completely that this was not something she was open to sharing, but I felt like between Taylor and her mother freaking out over the roommate, it would have at least been mentioned as an option. Not to mention both of her other two roommates offered to switch with her so that she wouldn’t have to be the one sharing a room with Hunter, but she never even entertained the idea.

Taylor made broad statements about who Hunter was as a person and how he viewed other people before she’d spent any time alone with him or talked to him long enough to be able to make that observation. It seemed like an indirect way for Ms. Cameron to build up Hunter but it didn’t seem realistic since I’d seen no indication Taylor could have actually observed this for herself. Also, Hunter was unrealistically perfect from his cooking for the entire floor to his patience with Taylor and as a result he never felt believable.

I did like the emotions shown once Taylor finally had her big reveal. The story felt like it added layers of depth once Taylor opened up and I appreciated that it felt true to Taylor’s story. I also liked that MY FAVORITE MISTAKE flowed well from start to finish.

I had a lot of hope for MY FAVORITE MISTAKE and gave it 2.5 stars (rounded down to 2 for reviewing purposes). While I felt like it didn’t reach it’s full potential, some people will love the concept and may not have the same issues with Taylor that I did.

**Complimentary copy provided by the author/publisher for an honest review.

**Reviewed by preppea on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews.

View all my reviews

BUY IT NOW! - Amazon

No comments:

Post a Comment