Take Me for Granted (Take Me #1)

Take Me for Granted started off on the wrong foot for me when a date rape attempt was treated like a blase thing. I\’m of the opinion that if you\’re going to even mention a serious topic in a book, you better be prepared to develop it further. Otherwise, you end up coming off as an insensitive and lazy author. When Grant\’s friend, Vin, spiked Aribel\’s drink, there are no consequences to it. The heroine saw it, she didn\’t say anything to her blow up doll friend Cheyenne at the time, and in the end, she used her spiked drink to get rid of the hero. Later, she tells her friend what Vin did, which only makes Cheyenne say that Vin was an a****. And that\’s about it. Cheyenne still wants to sleep with the guy. Moving on, the book is about MW Grant who falls in love with Aribel only because she was rude to him and kept telling him no. Oh, and Aribel is a virgin. Shocker, right? I couldn\’t stand the contrived plot and the unrealistic situations portrayed in this book. Plus, there aren\’t any likable support characters to make the reading more bearable. Cheyenne, the roommate/friend was your typical bubbly, air head that only came into the scene to pester Ari about her love life. I have no bloody clue why Ari put up with the girl or why they were even friends. The connection simply wasn\’t there. I stopped at the 40% mark. This is NA at its worst.

Sometimes, in my life as a new mom, I need to look back on what it meant to be young and carefree. New Adult has been my genre of choice when I need an escape back to simpler times without adding in the teenage angst (yuck, who wants to relive that?). I have had a few K.A. Linde books slide across my electronic review desk but have never indulged in her writing until now. I had high hopes that I wouldn\’t be disappointed in my choice as my reading schedule has been precarious with a demanding newborn. Grant is the stereotypical lead singer rocker dude. He sleeps around, drinks, smokes weed, and typically could not care less about anyone but his very limited inner-circle. Every woman he meets is simply a means to an end, a quick lay before moving on to yet another of the same. Groupies flock to him from every angle and he is more than accommodating… for the first 20 minutes at least. However, he meets his match when he expects \’easy\’ from Aribel. Aribel has no desire to be another notch on Grant\’s rather whiddled down bedpost. She has her goals in mind: study as hard as possible to make the grades to graduate and do something productive with her life. That does not include getting tangled in Grant\’s sheets… despite the heat he brings with him in every cocky gesture or teasing remark. Grant and Aribel are two of the most unlike people to become involved with each other. But some how the fast and loose rocker and the uptight and shy recluse find solace in each other\’s company. Grant, running from his past, and Aribel, sprinting towards her future, were not looking for any sort of entanglement. But sometimes love can be found in the most unlikely of people. I am a sucker for books about troubled rock stars being changed (usually for the better) by good, well-meaning girls. Every woman wants to believe they can change a bad boys vices for the better and I am no exception. I found myself more and more frustrated with the groupie population. Any woman who has no self respect really doesn\’t deserve any from me (in my opinion). I watched Grant be surrounded by these women who believe the best way to tame the beast is by warming his bed. Yeah, because that always works. I loved that Aribel didn\’t swoon every time Grant hit on her. I liked that Grant found the strong-willed nerd intriguing to the point of pursuit. The major fault I had in the book is one I can\’t devulge. I can\’t spoil a paramount plot aspect by discussing it in this review. However, I will say, that I found Grant\’s \’demons\’ to be immature. The reason the situation happen was due to a crippling condition. A little understanding from Grant would have made it a more believable hook for the story. Instead, it just seemed like Grant was faulting an otherwise good person for an uncontrollable characteristic. This cost Grant quite a few cool points in my book. When you lose interest in the opposite sex protagonist it can be to the detriment of the book as a whole. But, that is not to say that I didn\’t enjoy the book. I truly did. Grant was hunky despite, what I feel, is a immaturity on his part and Aribel was delightful. Nothing makes this book addict sit up and take notice then when the most unlikely of beauties can tame the most debauched of beasts. Review is posted on http://www.booksabrewin.blogspot.com.

I listened to the audio version of this book and always enjoy the fact that emotions and intonation add so much more to the story. This was a classic bad boy tamed by the good girl tale. I love it when a guy with \’whorish\’ ways is brought to his knees by a girl. Aribela was definitely not interested in getting to know Grant in any way, shape or form but there was just something about her that he could not resist and eventually his persistence pursuing her pays off. Grant is everything that her parents warned her about when it comes to men, he does not move in the sort of circles that her family does and his music career is not one she expected her future life partner to have. Being with him comes with huge risks and having her heart broken is at the top of the list. Then there are the trust issues with groupies. These two really do have to battle their way through all of these issues and learnt to trust and have faith in their love for each other. This does not end on a cliff hanger but there is more to their story in a second book.

Aribel is a Princeton girl and dead-serious about her studies and goals. But her head-strong intellect may not be enough to resist the rock n’ roll singer, Grant. Quite frankly, I thought Grant was cocky and disgusting. Kudos for her not falling for his so-called sexy charisma—at first. She eventually does fall for it. The whole story is basically a sexy cat-and-mouse game from the start. He wants to get her into bed, and she does everything possible to fight him. I didn’t like that Aribel went from bright, ambitious student to painted-up hussy in 60 seconds. And for what? Grant? The two were just obsessed with getting it on. Not that I have a problem with a few love scenes, but this was just too much, almost to the point that it became unbearable.

I have all of the other books that K.A. Linde has written and I have loved them all. Unfortunately I didn\’t really connect with this book. I found that it moved way too fast, I didn\’t get chance to really connect with the characters. I thought that the relationship between Grant and Aribel was too rushed. One minute they were arguing the next they were on date seven and really into each other. I would\’ve liked to have read about the dates and grown with the characters. For example one minute they were kissing and then the next 2 weeks had passed. What happened in those two weeks? We didn\’t get to see what Aribels family were like either. They were only briefly mentioned and then briefly introduced. I love to get to know characters, I like to at first know the basics about them like what their relationship with their family is like and I like to read the interactions with their family but there was none in this book. I really really wanted to like it as I loved the author but it was just too rushed for me.

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