You Make Me (Blurred Lines #1)
    by: Erin McCarthy

Publication Date: Apr. 17, 2014
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Source: e-ARC provided by Xpresso Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 289 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 2/5 stars

The guy she wants…

Growing up on the coast of Maine with a revolving door of foster siblings, Caitlyn Michaud spent one intense and passionate year falling in love with her foster brother, Heath. Then he left without a word. The betrayal devastated Caitlyn and made her vow to forget the compelling bad boy. But forgetting his sensual touch and their deep all-consuming friendship is easier said than done.

Isn’t the guy she needs…

Determined to move on, in college Caitlyn has risen above her small town impoverished roots and has joined a sorority, reinvented her appearance, and landed the right boyfriend. Pre-law major and frat president, Ethan, is thoughtful and always laughing, and he makes her feel happy, calm. He also gives her the social acceptance she craves.

But the perfect world she tried so hard to attain is ripped apart when Heath appears one night out of nowhere. Caitlyn remembers all the reasons why she loves him, even if they don’t make sense to anyone but her. Out of the military, Heath is as brooding and intense as ever, and he is determined not only to win her back, but to exact revenge on everyone who kept him from her…

And when one love allows her to breathe, but the other feels as essential to her life as air, how does she choose between them?

 

 

When I first saw this book come up as a review opportunity, I was very intrigued by the premise alone. I am a sucker for a good love triangle, so this definitely piqued my interest. However, I almost don't even consider this a love triangle. I didn't feel there was any doubt as to who the main character would choose, so I felt a bit gypped on that push and pull I like in a love triangle. After reading You Make Me, I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this book. I felt like it had the potential to really make this premise work, but it just fell short for me.

 

What Worked: I really liked the prologue. It's short, but it gives you a brief insight as to how heartbroken this girl is from losing her first love. I think it's haunting and it gives just the right amount of hook to bring you into the story.

 

I also liked the duplicity of Cat's character. Having grown up the way she did- with a mentally ill mother, a disabled father, and a brother,who she now has no association with, Caitlyn has known what it's like to go without. At school, she has transformed herself into someone else: her boyfriend and best friend have no idea about the life she once lived. She is the vice president of her sorority and no longer goes without. One look at her and you would never know she was once a scraggly little girl from the island. Heath knows her as the simple, uninhibited girl she once was and Ethan knows her as the perfectly coiffed, in control girl she is now. Caitlyn has to decide: does she want to be Cat or does she want to continue to be Caitlyn?

 

What Didn't: I wasn't emotionally invested in this story. I feel it was just presented to me and I was told about Caitlyn's life, where I would have rather SEEN it. I would have preferred more in-depth flashbacks as to what Cat's life was like before. I wanted to see more of how her and Heath's relationship developed and I would have even liked to see how her and Ethan got together. This was my biggest issue with the book: the lack of development.

 

When I first read the blurb, I imagined I would be emotionally torn in half trying to decide between the two love interests. I wasn't at all. In fact, I had a hard time liking both of them. Ethan is built up as this great guy who really loves her and wants to spend his life with her, but maybe it's because I didn't get to see their relationship develop and get to where it currently was, I just didn't see that. He becomes extremely jealous over Heath's return and does some things that I would kick a guy's ass for doing. Heath, on the other hand, has a bit of a bad boy persona- more mysterious, gruff- we don't know why he left without any explanation, but now he's back and wants to be with Cat. Having just got out of the Marines, Heath has certainly been affected by what happened over there, which he won't discuss and we never find out about. His anger really bothered me and I was left wondering what Caitlyn saw in either guy because it didn't seem either of them were the right choice. I also didn't like the way Heath handled several things towards the end of the novel: it made him seem deceptive and secretive and I was left wondering if he had an ulterior motive.

 

Caitlyn's character irritated me to no end though. She claims she's made her choice, but after the way she was treated, I don't understand WHY that was her choice. Was it just to continue living the life she was? She also made me doubt her because of how fast she seemed to move on afterwards. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so I will leave it at that. I don't think she knew what she wanted and she was torn between what she should want and what she really did. I also felt there was an instance towards the end where I seriously wondered if Cat was going to end up being bipolar. Her jealousy throughout the book was bad enough, but the scene to which I'm referring, I feel she seriously went off the deep end.

 

Final Thoughts: This just wasn't for me. Having read tons of New Adult and love triangles done extremely well, this one just missed the mark. I am such a character driven reader and I need to feel emotionally invested in my characters for the book to truly leave a lasting impression. I felt more irritation than anything with this set of characters and I do believe that had there been more development, I may have enjoyed this one a bit more than I did.

True (True Believers #1)
   by: Erin McCarthy

Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Publisher: InterMix
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Source: e-ARC from NetGalley*
Page Count: 238 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 3/5 stars

When Rory Macintosh’s roommates find out that their studious and shy friend has never been with a guy, they decide that, as an act of kindness they’ll help her lose her virginity by hiring confident, tattooed bad boy Tyler Mann to do the job…unbeknownst to Rory.

Tyler knows he’s not good enough for Rory. She’s smart, doctor smart, while he’s barely scraping by at his EMT program, hoping to pull his younger brothers out of the hell their druggy mother has left them in. But he can’t resist taking up her roommates on an opportunity to get to know her better. There’s something about her honesty that keeps him coming back when he knows he shouldn’t…

Torn between common sense and desire, the two find themselves caught up in a passionate relationship. But when Tyler’s broken family threatens to destroy his future, and hers, Rory will need to decide whether to cut her ties to his risky world or follow her heart, no matter what the cost…

This is a difficult review to write. I don't really know where to start, but here goes. Upon reading the first chapter we meet Rory, our protagonist, who is hanging out while her friends are getting laid. My first thought- Awkward! She is left alone with Grant, who she has a small crush on. He's cute, shy, and Rory thinks she can relate to him. However, Rory begins drinking and one thing leads to another. Grant is not the sweet, shy guy at all, but is a complete first class douche. He takes advantage of the fact that Rory is a little into him and the situation spirals out of control.

Tyler Mann intervenes, but I almost feel like he is a little too blasé about the whole thing. Sure, he gets a few punches in and tells Grant where to go, but something was just off for me. And her friends? Well, if I was in this situation (which I never would be, because my friends wouldn't leave me to fend for myself while they got laid!), but if I were- my friends would be LIT UP! That guy probably wouldn't live to tell about what he almost did. Rory's friends? "Omigosh, that sucks that almost happened! Let's talk about the fact that you're a virgin!" Hmph. They then make it their mission to get Rory laid. The lengths they go to and the way they handle it... why is she friends with these girls?!

Now getting past the initial irritation, we start to see Rory and Tyler become closer and begin tutoring each other. Tyler is good at Lit and Rory helps him with anatomy/physiology. Tyler reminds me a lot of Travis from Beautiful Disaster, and it's not just the tattoos or the bad boy persona. He does genuinely enjoy hanging out with Rory and getting to know her and he shows her a side of himself that others don't get to see. Tyler has a very troubling homelife and I admire Rory for not letting that deter her from getting close to him. She makes the decision to be with him, damned the implications, and I like that she got gutsy and stayed true to what she wanted. She fights for him and won't let him run away from difficult situations.

Watching Tyler interact with his brothers reminds me of Noah in Pushing The Limits. His family comes first and will do anything to make sure his brothers are taken care of. That won me over big time. This time, though, Tyler's mom is actually in the picture and she is a hot mess. You can tell Tyler and his older brother Riley have had to grow up way too fast in order to take care of their younger brothers when their mother has been too strung out to bother.

Back to Rory. She is innocent, sweet, but entirely too hard on herself. She has self-confidence issues and I hate that she thinks that Tyler would never be into her. He makes her realize how much she has going for her and shows her that she is special and has a lot to offer. In turn, she does the same for him- loves him, shows him that he's worth fighting for, and in the end it doesn't matter what other people think.

At first I found Tyler and Rory's relationship a bit unbelieveable, especially since he confesses he's been attracted to her for awhile. (So, explain to me again why you were having casual sex with her best friend? Stupid guys.) But, the more I read, the more I started to believe it.

These two definitely have their share of heartbreak in this story, and I felt the book ended a bit too soon, but I see that McCarthy will be writing a book about Jessica (one of Rory's friends) and Riley (Tyler's brother). I'm actually looking forward to that one because those two flat out hate each other and he teases and taunts her constantly. Those types of relationships are always fun to read. From the looks of it, we will also see Rory and Tyler in this next book too.

Overall, I thought it was a good read- despite my issues with the characterization.

*I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.*