Genre: Publication.Date April 30th, 2012 Pages: 256 Published By: Kirsty Moseley Website Kirsty Moseley The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window on Goodreads My review copy: Bought
Where to get:
Amber Walker and her older brother, Jake, have an abusive father. One night her brother's best friend, Liam, sees her crying and climbs through her bedroom window to comfort her. That one action sparks a love/hate relationship that spans over the next eight years. Liam is now a confident, flirty player who has never had a girlfriend before. Amber is still emotionally scarred from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Together they make an unlikely pair. Their relationship has always been a rocky one, but what happens when Amber starts to view her brother's best friend a little differently? And how will her brother, who has always been a little overprotective, react when he finds out that the pair are growing closer? Find out in The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window.
(Goodreads)
"Every time I start to fall, you make yourself fall backwards so I land on top of you. You're going to hurt yourself," I explained, frowning.
He shrugged. "Rather me than you," he mumbled under his breath, pulling me to my feet again.
"It's always been you; it'll always be you, Angel."
He smiled. "You're my girlfriend, Angel," he purred seductively, kissing my lips lightly. "My girl." He kissed me again. "The only one I want."
She looked terrified; she looked so scared that I felt like my heart would stop beating at the sight of it.
"The first time I saw you I thought you were an Angel straight from heaven. You were so beautiful that you took my breath away. You still do, every day."
He turned his nose up, faking a shudder. "Don't remind me about my former life without you, Angel. I'll have nightmares," he said with mock horror, making me laugh.
I picked this one up because of the description. There was abuse, which tends to be something I keep picking up, but I also figured there'd be a good level of sweetness within the story. The protective brother aspect, the boy who's always been there aspect, and everything else hinted at all added up to a book I thought I'd truly love. Unfortunately, this book fell a long ways short of my expectations.
The main character wasn't one that I liked or connected to at all. She contradicted herself so many times. First Liam was always an asshole. Then we find out that he did nice things sometimes--but oh no. They were SO ANNOYING. She said things all the time that weren't reflected in the actual characters. Most specifically, Liam. And her interests. She loves dancing, but we don't spend much time with her actually dancing. I'm not a dancer, but I know for a fact that a lot of practice goes into it. She was a character that was described as lots of things that weren't backed up. She's supposed to be funny. I did not see this. She's supposed to be kind. Why? Because she helped one friend figure out a birthday gift one time? Because she was somewhat friendly to Johnny? Other than those two things, she was kind of rude most of the time.
All the other characters weren't very complex, either. The best friend who was obsessed with guys. The over-protective brother. The brother's best friend who's had a crush on her for forever but acted like a manwhore because he wanted to move on or he was waiting for her or something. Don't get me wrong, some of these things I find entertaining. I LOVE protective older brothers in books. And when the love interest, Liam, put aside his manwhore ways, he grew on me easily. But that didn't make their characters any more interesting. Mostly just gave them a bit of saving grace from being hated by me.
The writing didn't do much for me. It was very show, then tell. Like, we already understood something, but it was said a sentence or two later even though we already grasped what was going on. And people "burst out laughing" (or something of that sort) several times in this book. Again, I didn't really find much, if anything, that was THAT funny. There were stereotypes galore, and the characters seemed to KNOW this. At one point, one girl (named Jessica, which didn't do anyone any favors) seriously said, "I'm head cheerleader! We're supposed to be together." Um, no. That's not how it goes. I'm not saying there isn't a levels thing in high school--like more social, well-known people kind of end up with people like them--but it doesn't go by what sport you play or whatever. That's just silly.
The plot of this story was odd. It kept changing. First it was Amber and Liam getting together. Because they just realized they should be together. I can deal with that, but what I didn't get was some of the things with them, like how they slept in the same bed EVERY NIGHT since the first time. And then later there were times described where they didn't. And I find it hard to believe she and Liam never had an ACTUAL conversation in all that alone time they spent together between sleeping in the same bed and him driving her to dance on Saturdays and whatnot. But let's move on. After that we get to this bet. Pretty much every single girl in school bet money on the fact that they could "nail Liam first." I don't know what high school they go to, but it is clearly fictional. That kind of stuff doesn't HAPPEN. Is he really that desirable? There surely must be some girls in that school that aren't interested. Or even if they are, they have the brains to not go in on a bet like that. I found that part of the novel so, SO hard to take seriously. After that, we get to the issues with her father and what I'd been expecting in the story. From that point on, the story worked better for me.
My only other huge problem with the book was Liam in the beginning. He was very full of himself. He seriously said things like "Most girls would love to have me do that to them." Because that matters. And he explains his manwhore ways, with the typical explanation of trying to get over Amber. And I didn't like how Amber viewed him at the beginning of their relationship, assuming he was having trouble because she wasn't giving him sex right then. Liam was absolutely fine and respectful at that point, but Amber was still critical.
All that said, however, there were some things I liked about this novel. I found it an enjoyable read, for the most part. Which is probably hard to believe because of everything I pointed out already, but after I'd made it through and noticed all those things, I still found I liked the general story. Surprisingly, I think I will re-read this one at some point. When I need something sweet. Because the book did have a lot of things I look for in books, and while the story wasn't perfect, I was okay with it overall.
I was also a huge fan of how respectful Liam was when it came to sex with Amber. He didn't push. He always asked her is she was sure. It was a complete 180 from how Liam seemed and was described in the beginning, but it was a good change, so I approve. We got in his head a few times throughout the book, and while this happened at what seemed like completely random times, I appreciated it nonetheless. At one point we were in his head, and he was with Amber and thought, "OK, I'll just go along with it until she tells me to stop; I knew she felt comfortable enough to ask me to stop, which I loved." I like this.
Overall, while The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window is nowhere near a perfect book and there are so many things I did not like about the story, there were still some enjoyable elements. I wish it could have worked better for me, and I do plan to re-read it at some point. And I definitely plan to check out more books by this author. This one was only her first, so I have hope that her books get better and I'm not giving up on her yet.
The main character wasn't one that I liked or connected to at all. She contradicted herself so many times. First Liam was always an asshole. Then we find out that he did nice things sometimes--but oh no. They were SO ANNOYING. She said things all the time that weren't reflected in the actual characters. Most specifically, Liam. And her interests. She loves dancing, but we don't spend much time with her actually dancing. I'm not a dancer, but I know for a fact that a lot of practice goes into it. She was a character that was described as lots of things that weren't backed up. She's supposed to be funny. I did not see this. She's supposed to be kind. Why? Because she helped one friend figure out a birthday gift one time? Because she was somewhat friendly to Johnny? Other than those two things, she was kind of rude most of the time.
All the other characters weren't very complex, either. The best friend who was obsessed with guys. The over-protective brother. The brother's best friend who's had a crush on her for forever but acted like a manwhore because he wanted to move on or he was waiting for her or something. Don't get me wrong, some of these things I find entertaining. I LOVE protective older brothers in books. And when the love interest, Liam, put aside his manwhore ways, he grew on me easily. But that didn't make their characters any more interesting. Mostly just gave them a bit of saving grace from being hated by me.
The writing didn't do much for me. It was very show, then tell. Like, we already understood something, but it was said a sentence or two later even though we already grasped what was going on. And people "burst out laughing" (or something of that sort) several times in this book. Again, I didn't really find much, if anything, that was THAT funny. There were stereotypes galore, and the characters seemed to KNOW this. At one point, one girl (named Jessica, which didn't do anyone any favors) seriously said, "I'm head cheerleader! We're supposed to be together." Um, no. That's not how it goes. I'm not saying there isn't a levels thing in high school--like more social, well-known people kind of end up with people like them--but it doesn't go by what sport you play or whatever. That's just silly.
The plot of this story was odd. It kept changing. First it was Amber and Liam getting together. Because they just realized they should be together. I can deal with that, but what I didn't get was some of the things with them, like how they slept in the same bed EVERY NIGHT since the first time. And then later there were times described where they didn't. And I find it hard to believe she and Liam never had an ACTUAL conversation in all that alone time they spent together between sleeping in the same bed and him driving her to dance on Saturdays and whatnot. But let's move on. After that we get to this bet. Pretty much every single girl in school bet money on the fact that they could "nail Liam first." I don't know what high school they go to, but it is clearly fictional. That kind of stuff doesn't HAPPEN. Is he really that desirable? There surely must be some girls in that school that aren't interested. Or even if they are, they have the brains to not go in on a bet like that. I found that part of the novel so, SO hard to take seriously. After that, we get to the issues with her father and what I'd been expecting in the story. From that point on, the story worked better for me.
My only other huge problem with the book was Liam in the beginning. He was very full of himself. He seriously said things like "Most girls would love to have me do that to them." Because that matters. And he explains his manwhore ways, with the typical explanation of trying to get over Amber. And I didn't like how Amber viewed him at the beginning of their relationship, assuming he was having trouble because she wasn't giving him sex right then. Liam was absolutely fine and respectful at that point, but Amber was still critical.
All that said, however, there were some things I liked about this novel. I found it an enjoyable read, for the most part. Which is probably hard to believe because of everything I pointed out already, but after I'd made it through and noticed all those things, I still found I liked the general story. Surprisingly, I think I will re-read this one at some point. When I need something sweet. Because the book did have a lot of things I look for in books, and while the story wasn't perfect, I was okay with it overall.
I was also a huge fan of how respectful Liam was when it came to sex with Amber. He didn't push. He always asked her is she was sure. It was a complete 180 from how Liam seemed and was described in the beginning, but it was a good change, so I approve. We got in his head a few times throughout the book, and while this happened at what seemed like completely random times, I appreciated it nonetheless. At one point we were in his head, and he was with Amber and thought, "OK, I'll just go along with it until she tells me to stop; I knew she felt comfortable enough to ask me to stop, which I loved." I like this.
Overall, while The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window is nowhere near a perfect book and there are so many things I did not like about the story, there were still some enjoyable elements. I wish it could have worked better for me, and I do plan to re-read it at some point. And I definitely plan to check out more books by this author. This one was only her first, so I have hope that her books get better and I'm not giving up on her yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment