Review: All the Wrong Reasons

 

Title:All the Wrong Reasons
Author: J.L Paul
Publication Date: February 24, 2011
Source: Borrowed
Summary (from Goodreads)
Irelyn's life is headed in the right direction: College education, new friends, fantastic boyfriend. Her dream of writing romance novels isn't too far out of reach. Her relationship with her family is good. And to top it all off, she's positive her boyfriend is going to propose soon. Yes, life is wonderful.

Until that night with Lucas changes everything.

Maybe it’s just me and I’m in a reading funk, but 98% of the books I’m reading just aren’t doing it for me. When did books stop thrilling me?  You remember those. The ones that kept you up late and made your eyes hurt because you just couldn’t put it down. Sure I’ve read a couple of those over the last few months, but most of what I pick up lately is just lacking that all night enthusiasm.

All the Wrong Reasons definitely sounded like it had promise. People were raving about it, comparing it to other popular books (which I haven’t read yet) so I figured what the hell? I’m left wondering why I even bothered.

It was just another mediocre read for me. It started off awkward - maybe it was me or maybe it was the writing. JL Paul didn’t seem to find the proper groove for the book until half way through and by then I was a lost cause.

Irelyn is caught between the good on paper guy Dustin and the good in bed guy Lucas. She’s been dating paper guy for over a year when suddenly, after two vodka and crans and a very brief conversation with Lucas – seriously it was like “hello” and then all of a sudden HELLO – she tumbles into bed with him. She’s guilt ridden she’s screwing over the wonderful boyfriend but not guilty enough to stop screwing Lucas.

See the potential this story could have? Instead I was left feeling like I was reading fan fiction. Maybe it was fan fiction. I can’t keep track of everyone that’s making a buck from someone else’s characters. No, I don’t have a problem with authors who start out as fan fiction writers, good on you for doing it! But come up with your own characters if you want to venture into publishing so I’m not left feeling like I’m reading recycled crap. (Okay, I admit some fan fic turned o-fic are good. I’ve actually loved a couple of them knowing what they had started out as, and then there were others that I was in the dark about. *sigh* I’ll just stop being a bitch now)

The book wasn’t crap, okay? Not crap. I think teens would like it. But I’m no teen anymore and I’m looking for a lot of bang for my buck. Delicious, juicy, descriptive bang. Can someone send something like that my way, please?