A Play That Needs the Option

"'The whole, ‘stars aligned and fate predestined it’ kind of thing?'
'No. More like we made the stars realign and fate had nothing to do with it.'"
--Nicole Williams, Clash

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Publisher: HarperCollins, 389 pages

Publication Date: April 23rd, 2013

Source: Borrowed from Library
Goodreads
Previous Books in Series: Crash & Clash

Goodreads Description

Football glory. A giant diamond. A wandering eye.

Jude and Lucy are happily engaged . . . but that doesn't mean life's a bed of roses.

Once again, Jude and Lucy are torn apart by football training and a summer job that creates new tensions. This time Jude's the one with trust issues. Will Lucy's life-changing news bring them back together or end their relationship for good? Can love triumph forever?

My Thoughts

Finally. And I mean FINALLY. After countless pages and the third book in we finally get some communication and rational thought. I knew I would be rewarded. The final book in the Crash trilogy brings us to the end of Jude and Lucy’s junior year of college and Jude being drafter into the NFL. Jude becomes very aware of how much money he will have and how he can finally give Lucy what she deserves, that they finally made it, etc.. For once, I agree with Lucy’s stance on the situation. While money can make you comfortable, it definitely can’t make you happy if you weren’t already happy to begin with. I totally understand Lucy being upset that Jude thinks she would want a massive house and expensive things when they were doing just fine before. I can see it from both ends but I was more siding with Lucy on this one—I know, weird.

Again, after that she is still annoying. Keeping things from Jude that are important, flying off the handle at him. Jude’s jealousy is back and it was nice to see him get a taste of his own medicine with the roles reversed from Clash. And FINALLY somebody said, put yourself in my shoes. Yeah, uh duh! Beyond that though I still do adore these two. Like Lucy says, not everybody will understand their relationship but to quote the first book, these two love each other like it’s their religion and you have to appreciate that. They’re not perfect. They are indeed a tad unhealthy but they work.

The supporting characters in this book I felt finally had a voice. We got to know them more than previous books and I really loved this. Holly, India, Thomas, and Little Jude round out this dysfunctional family and their dynamics and scenes were some of my favorites. SPEAKING of certain scenes, who knew this book got so dirty!? I didn’t! I’m reading and going oh…uh…they’re still talking, oh WOW did she just say that?!...Did he just do that?...Did they just…oh…yep, they did and I read every detail. Don’t get me wrong, we all know I love sexy times I just wasn’t expecting it. Shit. Pervert descpritions aside, I thought these scenes did add a lot to the story. For me, I felt the maturity of the book and the relationship moreso than I did previously. The high drama of the last two brings an infinite amount of immaturity and rash decisions that children make. However, being able to see their love play out intimately and the quiet moments they had brought a lot to the depth of the story.

The writing this time finally felt cohesive. The last book felt rushed and the first book left a lot to be desired so I had low expectations this round. I felt the author finally found the groove and ebb and flow of the story. The chronology had my head tilting a bit but I got over it and let it be—see what I did there?

Should You Read This? I felt this was a good final book to end the story of Jude and Lucy. This was my favorite of all of them because I felt like we actual got depth, maturity, and good storytelling.