Book Review: Love Story

Love Story

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publish Date: July 19th 2011

Publisher: MTV Books

She's writing about him. He’s writing about her. And everybody is reading between the lines..

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true. (From GoodReads)

Everyone loves a New York City romance right? It’s not like it’s been done before in several million different versions. There’s not many more ways to describe the city or it’s plethora of its inhabitants... is there?

The story is traveling through college in the eyes of Erin, a Kentucky raised English major. She’s struggling, though completely by choice. The price people pay for pride is well known and I do admire her for sticking with her goals and not letting anything or anyone decide for her what she is or isn’t going to do. Although to be poor enough to measure a cell phone bill by how many packs of ramen I could get from that money is a bit harsh. There’s poor and then there’s disturbingly poor. (For the record she says a cell phone would cost 200 packs of ramen. O_o I hope to never eat that much ramen in my lifetime let alone a month.) She has had a lot of jobs in five months, not by choice but rather by necessities. Her life is hard, but not nearly as hard as it could be considering how hard she’s working. Count your blessings so to speak and she does for the most part. 

Enter shining white knight Hunter. Whom, I actually don’t overly like. He’s too... close to perfect to be a likeable character for me. He’s pretty and charming and gets along with everyone... except our heroine of course since at every opportunity they’re fighting about her inheritance, or rather, lack thereof. He’s a curious mix of hot and cold depending on situation that is maddening. Either you do or you don’t and he’s obviously torn enough over something (I won’t tell) to not know exactly what he wants. Yet.

The story is an entertaining toss of he said she said. It’s done in such a unique way I don’t notice the chapters rolling by as I change pages. What Erin says and how Hunter counters is the most unique dance of boy likes girl that I’ve ever read. 

The story ends rather abruptly. I feel as if there’s a chapter or two missing. While I understand why it just stopped the way it did, I don’t like it. There’s not any closure to the ending, or even any definite idea if anything is actually resolved I’d have liked a confrontation with Erin’s grandmother, or at the very least a complete resolution between Hunter and Erin. The characters are left in the middle of repairing the damage and we’re left without knowing if it does completely resolve. 

My Rating: