No Judgments (Little Bridge Island #1)

I associate Meg Cabot with witty, charming prose and hilarious situations. I love her Princess Diaries series and her fun Regency romances. However, this book is flat and lackluster, with the same situation dragging on and on and one. Also, the main characters are not overly likable. I am surprised that Meg Cabot wrote this.

So predictable, unrealistic, and has plotholes all over the place! I expected more from Meg Cabot having written the Princess Diaries, but it looks like she\’s just turning out cheap chic lit these days.

This novel had the potential to go into some very deep issues. We didn\’t see much more of the characters than what was on the surface. The chemistry between the main characters was based almost purely on physical attraction, which is fine if that\’s all you are aiming for. I was hoping the story and characters would be as powerful as the hurricane the book centers around, but in the end, it was not as strong as anticipated.

This book started off well, peaked early, and then plateaued to an ending that felt rushed and condensed several important moments into a small amount of pages. I thought I was going to like this book initially – it drew me in easily and the writing kept me engaged. But the characters turned out to be rather lackluster, with secondary characters that had little personality aside from one or two traits and main characters that I could not connect with. Bree was an okay protagonist, but there was just something about her that didn\’t click for me. She was just kind of…boring. I thought I might be able to connect with her through her self struggles concerning her career path and finding herself, but it just was kind of meh for me. There were points when I was very much annoyed by her: freaking out over possibly getting arrested for breaking into homes to take care of pets (considering that her parents work in the legal system and she went to law school for a bit I can\’t believe she panicked that much), and then sleeping with Drew ONCE and deciding that she was falling in love with him after really knowing hin for all of a handful of days (and no, 3 months of him being a regular at the cafe she works at does not count since they never really talked. And Drew was honestly off-putting. He was aggressive, rude, kind of demanding and presumptive and just turned my stomach sometimes. I\’m glad he likes dogs and all, but I don\’t know how to feel about a guy who names all of his dogs Bob and calls himself the alpha. But it definitely made me cringe. The plot started off well, with all the lead up to the hurricane being very interesting and engaging. But once the hurricane passed it all kind of plateaued. I felt like nothing interesting was really happening. There were some animal feedings, time spent with Drew, having \”fun\” with him (whatever that meant since it really didn\’t translate on the page – and I\’m not talking about the sex scene, that\’s a whole different issue), and people just generally dealing with the whole aftermath of the storm. Then the ending happens and its like \”Here, have all of Bree\’s issues solved at once!\”. [SPOILER]And while I agree that what Kyle did was wrong and Bree had every right to react the way she did, I don\’t really feel like using a gun to prove her point felt appropriate to her character? It just felt like a huge turn and happened right at the end as if that was actually enough to really give some closure to that part of the storyline. And Bree\’s reaction felt, I hate to say it, a little overdramatic. Kyle didn\’t rape her, and while what he did was still wrong, she acted as though he had nefarious plans to do worse to other women in the future when really what he needs to do is just actually follow through with rehab. It was just…all a little over the top for me. Also, the fact that Caleb was supposed to show up was mentioned in the synopsis had me thinking it was going to happen a LOT sooner than when it did. [END SPOILER] And the romance was awful. I am all for a but of antagonism between two people who don\’t want to admit they are attracted to one another, but this banter was just sad. I hated how Bree spent so much time trying not to act on her attraction to Drew because she was still getting over her ex (fair!), only for her to just give in so quickly after a few heated kisses. It\’s okay to move on, but doing such a one-eighty in terms of her feelings towards Drew and about her relationship status in general felt like a slap in the face. And don\’t get me started on how everytime they kissed \”fireworks exploded in her shorts\”. Literally all they would do is touch lips and Drew would be hard and they were both ready to get down and dirty right there and then. Like I get being horny but this was a little fast.[SPOILER] (Also, that sex scene had me going nope so hard between him moving too fast and her just taking it and then THE METAPHORS OF THE ROCKING WAVES AND THE SUNSET ORGASM WTF IS THAT??? Omg that was horrible) [END SPOILER] Overall this boom was just not good. The plot went nowhere, the pacing was slow, the romance was undesirable, and the characters bland or unlikable. The only redeeming parts were the pets, and there should have been a lot more scenes with those considering how important that plot point seemed in the synopsis. This book fell flat early and, sadly, did not get back up.

I had never read a Meg Cabot book, so I went into this book very blind. I won\’t lie I was sure it would be a just okay/work day distraction read for me, but I was wrong. I ate this book up. I\’m not sure if it\’s because I listened to the audiobook or what but I was pulled into this book from the first chapter. I needed to know what was going to happen with this hurricane. I really like Bree and Drew main characters. Bree had an interesting background which played a big part in the story (the end got a little cheesy/far fetched regarding her background). Drew also had an interesting background, lots of things were stated about his past, but I don\’t honestly think they served much of a purpose in the long run. One thing I really wished the bookbhad was duel POV. I would have loved to know where Nick\’s head was. This was kind of an instalovey which isn\’t my favorite. I wish there was a little more time between \”oh this guy isn\’t so bad\” and I\’m in love with you. As far as chemistry I would say I felt it between the main characters, and because I was going on very little (like the fact that Meg Cabot wrote The Princess Diaries) I was surprised by the steam level in this book. Now it wasn\’t over the top, but it was there and it was done well in my opinion. As far as secondary characters we do meet the hero of the next book, and establish a lot of the town people. I actually loved all the secondary characters. The teenage girls being my favorites surprisingly. I\’ve seen quite a few negative reviews of this book and I don\’t get it. I really enjoyed my time in this world. I finished this book in 24 hours and immediately picked up book two.

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