Diary of a One-Night Stand by Alexandrea Weis

Title:Diary of a One-Night Stand
Author: Alexandrea Weis
Publication Date: August 1, 2012
Source: Author
Summary (from Goodreads):
   
Resilient and practical, Kara Barton has continually strived to live a respectable life. She went to college, embarked on a promising career as an attorney, married a great guy, and always appeared to be the perfect wife and mother. But all is not what it seems, and the troubling past Kara has been running from her entire life is about to catch up with her. Urged on by her insecurities about growing older, and desperately wanting to feel one more night of passion, Kara agrees to share a tryst in a hotel room with a sexy business associate, Scott Ellsworth. But Scott wants more than one night together, and Kara quickly discovers it is impossible to resist him. Soon Kara finds herself transformed into the kind of woman she vowed never to become, and the secure world she has struggled all her life to build begins to fall apart. Kara Barton is about to find out how a one-night stand can change everything.

                                 Review

I know not many people are fans of them, but I enjoy novels centered around cheating – if the plot is well written and thought out and the character(s) isn’t cheating with everyone in sight “just because”.

Diary of a One-Night Stand tells the story of a woman who I think many could relate to.  She’s married to a man who works too much, spends too little time with their daughter and who she no longer finds attractive – in any way.

During a work party, Kara suddenly finds herself drawn to Scott Ellsworth who easily convinces her to meet him at his hotel room one night and well, the title is born. But of course nothing is ever just that one night, is it? More sex, more complications, a divorce and then the surprise ending all happens along the way.

I can’t say that I was a fan of Kara’s. I wish she had been a little stronger in an independent sort of way. She went from living with her husband, to living with the guy she had the affair with to...well, I don’t want to spoil the ending so I’ll just say that not once did she try and make it on her own. She was so determined not to be like her mother but that’s exactly what she was – depending on men to take care of her. You don’t go from leaving your husband to moving in with some guy you’ve known a couple of weeks, especially when you have a kid and take her with you! No child should be confused like that. I would have respected the character more if she had left her husband and stayed on her own with her daughter.  

Scott…yeah, I couldn’t warm up to him either, although I liked the way Weis wrote him. He presented himself as this great guy, a changed man, but really what a load of bull. Most men with his reputation do not change overnight just because of one great lay. And as devious as you find out he is in the ending I liked how the author made him the same old snake he always was. It made the character more believable.

Surprisingly, my favourite character was Cal. Yeah he could be a prick and he really needed to get his head out of his ass but once he did he was the kind of guy that could definitely sweep you off your feet. Or re-sweep in this case.

There were two things that bugged me: 1) there’s a part in the book where Kara asks Scott how he really feels about her and he (of course) instead of giving her an answer in words he shows her with sex. If it had been slow and gentle and sweet that would have told her what she wanted to hear. But instead he took her hard and rough. Sure, it might have been passionate (for him) but there was nothing loving about it and that’s what she wanted from him. After he was done he told her that’s how he felt about her. Um, okay. So he thinks you’re a quick, hard fuck. Because that’s exactly what the sex was. But she thinks it means he cares for her. Can we say miscommunication?

And 2) the ending. Not the epilogue, because I thought that was good, but the actual ending. The way Kara wasn’t made to choose at all between the two men and fate, if you want to call it that, basically chose for her. I wish she had been made to examine her feelings for both men and (after living on her own for a while!) made it her choice who she wanted to be with.

However, despite those two things, and the way Kara irked me, I still enjoyed the story. Alexandrea Weis creates a very believable plot and characters - yes, as frustrating as Kara’s character was she is believable because there are so many women like her.