Catching Liam: 1 (Good Girls Don't)

Catching Liam - Gennifer Albin 21yo college student is comfortable with her 1-night-stands & likes that they leave her the next morning. To her chagrin, Scottish college student Hero wants to linger & get to know her better. As fate would have it, she gets partnered with him in their new communications class & their assignment include that they get to know each other. It doesn’t take long for heroine to get him back into her bed and consider him to be integral in her life. But what will it take for her to share her big secret with him?

I got an ARC copy of this book to review. I unfortunately didn’t like it. The writing was technically ok (except for a couple misspellings). It drew me into the story & characters. However, I did not care for the heroine. From the very start, she acted like a brat & the self-acknowledged bitch that she was. She was self-centered in her relationships. She used her friends & men for her benefit. She complained about her controlling mom but acted passive-aggressive about it. She threatened independence (i.e., being cut-off from her parents’ financing all her college expenses) but didn’t act on them (i.e., getting a job or student loans). Heroine acted privileged & immature. Her big secret doesn’t excuse any of it. It would have helped though if her big secret was hinted at from the get-go (instead of almost halfway through). I might have given heroine the benefit of the doubt, or at least sympathize with her, instead of increasingly dislike her & scratching my head as to why Hero would continue to pursue this selfish & mean brat. What made the romance was Hero’s persistence in heroine no matter how she acted towards him. There was something about her that drew him & made him stand by her when things got difficult in her life. Heroine, on the other hand, was clearly in lust with him. She loved him for caring for her & supporting her. But to love him in sickness & until death? No. The ending didn’t change my mind about her happy-for-now feelings for Hero. Too bad for him.

Minimally recommended.

*ARC courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review.