After her senior year of high school leaves behind nothing but heartache, Olivia Beaumont is sure of this: She’s no stupid girl. She sets out for Winston College, promising herself that she will remain focused on her first and only love – astronomy. But all it takes is cocky sophomore Brax Jenkins and an accidental collision with a football, to throw her entire year off course.
A quick-tempered Southie who escaped the inner city streets of Boston to pitch for Winston, Brax is known to play way more fields than just the baseball diamond. So, when his name is drawn to take part in his fraternity’s hazing dare, Brax eagerly accepts the mission to take Olivia’s virginity. But he doesn’t plan on falling hard for the sweet and sassy Texas girl who sees right through his bad-boy persona.
As Olivia and Brax battle their feelings for each other, echoes of the past year begin to surface. A boy who once turned Olivia’s whole world upside down reappears, and “harmless” pranks wreak havoc. Pretty soon the aspiring astronomer is on the verge of revealing her most difficult, heartbreaking secret. All the while, Brax must wrestle with the irrevocable dare, and Olivia struggles against all logic as she does the one thing only a stupid girl would do: fall in love.
Review: My heart broke for Olivia at the beginning of this book because, based on the prologue, I had a pretty good idea of what had just happened to her. Right before her senior year of high school, someone that was close to her had taken advantage of her. A year later, we find Olivia starting anew several hundred miles away from home, at college. On her first day, she is literally run over by Brax Jenkins. Olivia figures out pretty quickly that Brax is from Boston, which she cutely points out his accent many times, but she also finds out how determined he is to spend time with her and get to know her.
Olivia is, by her own account, somewhat of a nerd, but she has also been locked into a shell of her own making for the past year due to what happened to her. I enjoyed seeing Brax pull her out of this shell, even though I was very distrustful of his motives, based on what little I knew of the book. Olivia's worst nightmare also comes true as her past follows her to college. I liked that she slowly seems to be trying to learn how to take up for herself, and Brax definitely helps with this.
All is not as it seems, however, and Olivia finds out some things about Brax that cause her to regret trusting him. The circumstances behind this are very immature, in my opinion, but so accurate to what people this age think...or, in some cases, how they don't think. Brax must prove to Olivia that he has grown in his time of knowing her, and he must prove to her that she is first, as her grandfather, Jilly, says. For any New Adult fans out there, I really enjoyed this book!
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ReplyDeleteThanks! I can't wait to read it!
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