The Victim of Circumstance

"You can’t be friends with the person you were meant to spend your life with."
--Nicole Williams, Crash

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Publisher: HarperCollins, 365 pages

Publication Date: December 18th, 2012

Source: Won at BEA--Thanks Epic Reads!
Goodreads

Goodreads Description

Jude Ryder and Lucy Larson are this generation's Romeo and Juliet: Explosive. Sizzling. Tragic.

A steamy summer encounter with bad boy Jude means trouble for Lucy. Her sights are set on becoming a ballerina, and she won't let anything get in her way . . . except Jude.

He's got a rap sheet, dangerous mood swings, and a name that's been sighed, shouted, and cursed by who knows how many girls.

Jude's a cancer, the kind of guy who's fated to ruin the lives of girls like Lucy—and he tells her so.

But as rumors run rampant and reputations are destroyed, Lucy's not listening to Jude's warning. Is tragedy waiting in the wings?

My Thoughts

Ok. This is gonna be a very difficult review to write as well as confusing. So I liked Crash…mostly. I have several issues which I will discuss but overall, I eventually came to enjoy the story. Let me start with the negative and get that out of the way.

The first 100 pages were rough for me…really rough. Like I almost contemplated putting the book down and DNF rough. I’m going to avoid stating the obvious and comment on their names. Lucy and Jude…really? I can’t even go there. I am pro-Beatles and I just can’t. My problem with the first third of the book was that I felt like turnaround for the ‘bad boy’ to realize he liked the heroine was on warp speed. The initial meeting was all about him and his ‘I don’t do girlfriends or dates or flowers’ type speech yet that night he does something outlandishly adorable for her AND is having dinner at her house telling her dad he recognizes ‘something special’ with Lucy—uh, y’all have known each other for a hot minute. Where was the breaking down of the bad boy’s walls? Where was the buildup to the relationship? Where was ANYTHING?! It went from 0 to 60 in less than a day. I thought the development was definitely lacking but the characters had SO many emotions for each other after so little time. And the dialogue of these two was cheese to the max. I have never eye rolled so much in a book ever. It was a very tough beginning for me but for some reason I stuck to it.

Another thing that didn't really work for me was the chronology of the story. Weeks went by and then all the sudden 6 MONTHS was gone. My problem with this was that there was no explanation of what happened in the interim. I felt like the writing more TOLD me what they were feeling than SHOWED me if that makes sense. I didn't fully connect to the feelings behind the words I was reading. I had to pause in my reading and work into my mind the intentions of the characters moreso on my own rather than letting the writing do the work of fully telling the emotional story. Because of this and the jump in time it was really difficult to understand the characters’ feelings, especially their love for one another. It was a disconnect for me unfortunately. I really, REALLY wanted to connect more and love this story but it felt so jumbled and fragmented I couldn't connect the dots a lot of the time. Sad face.

Ok, so that aside, and it may be hard to believe, but I did eventually enjoy the story. I LOVED Jude. When we initially meet him I thought his whole ‘I don’t do girlfriends’ thing came from him just being a player and it was all an act. No…really, he is bad news. His background and history—once we find out what it is—totally explains where he is coming from. All of his actions, though rash and angry filled, are understandable once you find out his history. I really, REALLY like his character and while the inta-love was put on thick, I get why he would fall for Lucy. Lucy annoyed me a lot of the time. I REALLY wish there was more about her dancing. The cover totally fooled me—sad face. Again, with her dancing I wanted more development. I felt like I was told more than I felt her love of dance. I liked Lucy’s stance on the female psyche, as well as her commentary on high school in general had me laughing my ass off. Unfortunately, I thought her actions were extremely immature and not thought out at all. She made a lost of split second decisions and rather than own up to her mistake of jumping to conclusions, she stuck to her original misconception and took a long time to back down from it. Miscommunication was a constant in her and Jude’s relationship and it just got old after a bit. All of these situations seemed to just be snapshots of scenes spliced together and they just didn't flow as much as I would have liked.

But for real, I know I sound like I’m bashing this book but I’m not. I swear! I think the idea of Lucy and Jude and their story is fantastic! It is just the execution in the details and flow that didn't work for me. How the plot twists and the story evolves is something I never saw coming. And there were a few swoon-worthy moments. The Homecoming football game?!? Oh my gosh, it totally had me smiling and fanning myself a lot for Jude. He really made the whole book for me. I adore him.

Should You Read This? Maybe. The idea of the story is wonderful but it just fell flat in the flow and execution. I wanted more development but I will be reading the next book if only to get some more Jude. Fans of New Adult will enjoy and you may or may not love it. Really depends on what you like in regards to writing style.