So, I Read This Book Today . . .

When I received this book from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Paperback, I was looking forward to reading it. Charlotte (Cherri) Rudy is six feet of Ukrainian girl, living with her funny, snarky Ukrainian grandmother in a tumbledown house in a college town. Only twenty-two, Cherri was dropped off by her mother at age eight on her grandmother, lovingly known as Baba and her grandfather Peter. Though there was little money, there was great love, and after Peter’s death, Baba and Cherri area a quirky family unit of their own, supporting and loving one another. How cool is that? Add in good, quirky friends and this sounded like something I could curl up with and truly enjoy.

A day and a good sleep later, and I am still trying to figure out just where that truck came from that tore through the storyline, leaving devastation in it’s wake.

Don’t get me wrong, there should absolutely be tension in a storyline, but I believe this is where I was left at the end of the book bemoaning the fact that these were a few hours of my life that I will never get back. Cherri is only twenty-two, but she is very mature for her age in a lot of ways. She has cared for her grandmother, whose failing health is a constant concern, along with a failing home, and a career as a elementary school art teacher that she cannot attempt because of all her responsibilities. A powerful artist in her own right, she is tough, yes, but she has never even been on a date before, much less spent time with men. Being six-feet tall and curvy, though not fat, she is insecure, seeing as how her impression of what women should be is tiny, petite, and ‘modelesque’. From the first of the book, I loved Cherri and wanted to hug her every other page or so.

Enter the love interest, an Irish import, and best friend and past college roomie of Mike, her best friend Ellis’ husband. Colin O’Connell, a woman-loving, Irish accented powerhouse of “unabashed male beauty” who will, as Mike puts it, “screw anything that isn’t tied down.”

And, yes, here is where everything falls apart. Colin is, to be blunt, a male slut with the emotional intelligence of a randy 15-year-old. I know, I know, for some reason women like to read about ‘taming the bad boy’ and all that crap. (Hey, do you know how many places that penis has been? Euuuu!) Fine, fine, we won’t go there. However, to take that bad boy thing and give it a spoiled, self-centered mindset on top of everything, then dump him on a sweet, wonderful girl like Cherri . . . and then drag her through a metaphorical knothole backwards until her sense of self-esteem and self-worth is flushed down the (also metaphorical) crapper, isn’t sexy or charming or anything other than emotional abuse. Come on, the first thing that you hear him say, in his mind of course, upon their meeting at her twenty-second birthday party, is “She wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the word.” And yet, he is dying to get in her pants?

And Jamison heaps on the emotional abuse in spades. When the inevitable “oops” pregnancy happens during the ‘taking the virgin’ scene, Colin handles it in the worst possible way, causing Cherri even more emotional torture, stripping away more layers of her self esteem, and proving to her once again that she is ugly and undesirable, both inside and out. It broke my heart for Cherri. And the thing is, so many things in the book could have been worked out, and a much better story written, had there been even one adult conversation. Instead, Cherri is forced to suffer through agonizing emotional trauma while her idiot boyfriend once again acts like a 15-year old with a martyr complex. I didn’t find the emotional torture to be sexy or appealing. Instead, I found it to be not only cliché but mean spirited and emotionally cruel.

One thing I did admire about the story (I know, one of the few things, right?) was how Jamison brings into the light just how pitiless it is for some people to have children – children they can neither love nor care for. The pain it causes not only for the children themselves, but also for the family members that are left behind to care for the unwanted children. Being dumped as unwanted and, in their minds, unworthy of love brings on a lot of the emotional difficulties suffered by both characters. This, and the fact that Cherri was such a strong, loveable character, garnered an extra star for the book.

You may disagree with me, and feel that the whole ‘bad boy goes good’ thing is right up your alley. The emotional torture Cherri is subjected to by said emotionally crippled bad boy may be perfectly fine with you, and you may find this to be a five-star read. My opinions are my own, but, in my opinion, the book was, in a word, overwrought and a waste of my valuable reading time. Which is a shame.

I received this book from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Paperback Press in return for an honest review. Again, all opinions are my own.