Now Let Me Show You...

"I'm over it.
Your priorities realign at light speed when you get shanked."

--Ann Aguirre, The Shape of My Heart

Genre: NA Contemporary

Publisher: Harlequin

Pages: 352

Publication Date: November 25th, 2014

Source: eARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

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Previous Books in Series: I Want It That Way & As Long As You Love Me

Goodreads Description

Some people wait decades to meet their soul mate. Courtney Kaufman suspects she met hers in high school only to lose him at seventeen. Since then, Courtney's social life has been a series of meaningless encounters, though she's made a few close friends along the way. Especially her roommate Max Cooper, who oozes damaged bad-boy vibes from every pore.

Max knows about feeling lost and trying to move beyond the pain he's been on his own since he was sixteen. Now it's time to find out if he can ever go home again, and Courtney's the only one he trusts to go with him. But the trip to Providence could change everything because the more time he spends with Courtney, the harder it is to reconcile what he wants and what he thinks he deserves.

It started out so simple. One misfit helping another. Now Max will do anything to show Courtney that for every heart that's ever been broken, there's another that can make it complete.

After reading and loving I Want It That Way & As Long As You Love Me, I was SUPER looking forward to The Shape of My Heart. However, this final book in the 2B trilogy did not jive with me. The beginning of the book introduces us to Courtney, the new roommate, and apparently Max's BFF for quite awhile. This was the first indication that I didn't know how I was going to connect with the romance. Why? Courtney wasn't really present in the other books beyond her moving in after Lauren moves out. There are many references to Courtney and Max being BFFs and I just didn't know that or feel that. I felt like I was told they have this massive history of friendship without actually being shown it. I understand each novel is a standalone but even though we didn't see Rob and Lauren's history, I felt that book showed more of their feelings. 

But back to this book. I really enjoyed the beginning. I love Courtney's character; I love her sarcasm and how down to earth she is. She is a cool chick who really doesn't give a fuck what other people think. Love that. But her character soon started to wear on me...big time. I also personally struggle to accept a compliment, what girl doesn't?, but every.single.time. that Max tried to be serious with her and discuss their relationship she HAD to make some wisecrack joke. It was INFURIATING. I wanted to shake her! Just shut.up. and let him tell you how he feels. Personally, if I were Max, I would have walked out. Her sarcastic comments and inability to be serious was condescending and belittling. I would have been mortified if I were Max and never would have brought it up again. What started off as me loving Courtney's fire and sass and her consistency in having Max's back, ended with me wanting to muzzle her so Max could get out his feelings. 

I had surprisingly little opinion in regards to Max having read the last two books. I was excited for his story but didn't have any overwhelming opinions either way about him. Max was a little broody and melodramatic to be honest. There is one scene in particular where Courtney jokes about rough sex and him man-handling her, and he snaps. MILD SPOILER ALERT----We find out later he witnessed a GANG RAPE on a woman. Um, Max. I hate to break this to you but a fucking gang rape is a whole other universe from rough sex. It was mind-boggling for him to associate those two very different acts together. It was just...unnecessary and contrived to heighten drama.

The plot of the story was realistic and I did love how Max brought Courtney to his awful family...and vice versa. The climax of the drama at the end, again, felt a little contrived. The separation wasn't completely necessary in my opinion and I think a lot of that stems from Max having to work through his own emotional issues. I appreciated this because I believe we have to love and accept ourselves before others will so this aspect of the plot I did enjoy. The epilogue was fantastic because I REALLY  wanted to catch up with Lauren and Rob and Nadia and Ty! Really great touch for the final book. Well done. 

Denied At The Door

I love the other two books of this series and this one just didn't work for me.