I Do(n’t)

I just felt this was ok but not great. It wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought we’d be getting a much lighter, sexier, fun read but that’s not what this was.

Janelle and Holden get married when she’s 18 and he’s 22. They have a quickie marriage in Vegas and Janelle is so drunk she doesn’t remember the night at all. She goes off to College and he starts his career.

It’s now 5 years later and Janelle is looking to marry on a reality game show…for money. But, she finds out she can’t since she’s already married.

Janelle was young and immature and it constantly showed. She just seemed shallow and overly consume by money. You read that Janelle has hardly been home since she left for College. She’s been estranged from her family and it’s never really revealed why. I just thought it was a weird plot point since her family is big and close knit.

These two fought and purposefully tried to hurt one another through most of the book. There just seemed to be a lot of running and never any talking to each other. There was also a lot of judgement by the main characters and side characters. I just felt frustrated a lot.

I think I just simply got something completely different than what I was expecting.

3-3.5 stars. I liked the overall premise. Janelle and Holden have a memorable/not-so-memorable (depending on who you ask) one night together in Las Vegas and then they go their separate ways. And don’t talk or see much of each other for the next five years. Janelle went to college while Holden started working in his hometown, where Janelle and her family is from, becoming a part of her family. Now Janelle is back because she needs something from Holden so there’s no avoiding conversation anymore.

I enjoyed the prologue since it seemed to start with a bang. But then the story went forward and was rather lackluster in so many ways. Sometimes the conversations were awkward and there was a lot of push and pull between them that was supposed to build up angst, but wound up getting on my nerves because Janelle would be a mixture of mature and bratty while Holden didn’t want to engage in her games but needed to in order to prove a point. It was just a bunch of mixed signals and unresolved issues so that by the time it came time to clear the air, I was ready to move on and somewhat over them. And then there was all the denial between them about them not wanting each other and only agreeing to this arrangement for other ulterior motives. Holden’s supposed altruism puzzled me as well as his lack of effort to contact Janelle in the first place. But it wasn’t a heavy read and I was sucked into the second chance aspect and wanting to see the resolution.

I wanted to like this book but I couldnt. None of the characters reasoning for their actions made sense. I never really understood why the hero was upset with her because she couldnt remember what happened in Vegas. I also dont understand why he thought it was anywhere close to okay to join in with drinking with an 18 year old or to try to hold her to anything that she said while drunk, especially after finding out that she was black out drunk. I also didnt understand why she was expected to be psychic, and just know that her family was going through difficult things when they purposely kept their struggles from her. I didnt stick around to figure it out either. No saving this book. Im just angry that I actually spent money on this book. Wishing I had read the reviews first.

Im about 25% of the way into this story and I give up. I just couldnt get into this book, which is disappointing because it sounded like a cute premise, but I just couldnt handle all the scheming and manipulating. Holden thinks he knows whats best for Janelle and instead of talking to her for the last FIVE YEARS, he waits until she comes home and decides to teach her a lesson by lying to her. Ugh! I would never want to be with a guy like him. Janelle isnt much better. Were supposed to believe that shes been gone all this time because she couldnt face Holden after their drunken night in Vegas and I get that, but to use the excuse that shes been busy going to college doesnt really make sense – hello…summer?!? At this point, I dont even care anymore what happens to their relationship.

I needed a light, low angst read and this worked perfectly. I loved the idea of the story, brother’s best friend and a Vegas wedding. I enjoyed the book, the middle was a little slow but I’m glad I stuck with it. A good read, looking forward to reading more from this author.

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