Love Story by Jennifer Echols: A Review

From Goodreads (http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1305684651l/9470371.jpg) I do not own, but am only using for review purposes.

Title: Love Story

Author: Jennifer Echols

Source: Library

Publisher: MTV Books/Gallery Books/ Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Publication Date: July 19, 2011

Review from Goodreads (which I also do not own but am using for review purposes only):

  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.

Genre: Another hobby contemporary YA romance. This time the hobby is having a multi-million dollar horse farm, darlin', in Kentucky. BTW, this book is set in Erin's first year of college, so it may be considered a New Adult-ish book.

Cover: Echols gets good covers, I think. They're good for YA contemporary. Yes, they do show faces, but I can forgive them because I can easily forget the faces and insert ones I desire in my head. No worries, but they are nice mood setters.

Plot: Ok. You know how sometimes romance, YA or not, movie or book, can just be a big ol' knot you have to untangle to get to the end? Well this book is a hell of a knot. It's even a meta-knot because the book layers the MFC and MMC's writing assignment about each other for a creative writing class all throughout the turmoil they're going through. There's LOTS of ups and downs. Relationship, family, mental, creative writing. You may need to brace yourself. It's very much a soap opera kind of drama, with more elevation seeing as there are literary bits thrown in. Hmm…

Romantic Element: I love me a good drama, but there's a lot going on here. Erin and Hunter have a history before the book starts and the drama ensues, and sometimes, I felt like that history was too much preceded. They had so much going on before hand that I felt I had already missed something important. At times. Other times, Echols hit the drama well, and I wanted to keep reading. So, by the end, I'm not sure if I can say I liked the romance as much as I just watched it unfold.

Overall: Echols can write. If you haven't read her Going Too Far, OMG you are missing out. That book was YA romance royalty as far as I'm concerned. Love Story, I had huge hopes for it, some which were met and some were missed. This book is tons of drama of the freshmen debutante and the help variety, and if that sounds like something you could get into, you'd like the book. For me, it took a while for me to get into the book, but eventually I did. However, the end didn't feel like an end, which you'll see if/when you read it.

So what do you all think? Something you'd dig? Not dig? Dig a little? Let me know below!

And now to leave you with a song to write by, "Lighthouse" by Wishes and Thieves. I heard about them on GhenetMyrthil's blog, and they have a really cool vibe. AND their EP is free. SAY WHAT?!? I know. I got it here. Awesomeness.

PS. The Book Rat giveaway of my book Glittering Ashes ends today, so hop on over to Misty's blog and enter if you haven't (if there's still time).

Also, be sure to check out my interview on Melissa Bradley's blog Melissa's Imaginarium. 

Big thanks to Misty and Melissa for having me!!! <3

Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation in exchange for this book review, although there are several Amazon affiliate links within this post.