Dee's Blog Blog

Review Copy Provided By AuthorI’m going to be brutally honest up front, I tend to struggle with books that are labeled “New Adult,” because most of the time they are just ehhh – to down-right horrible…IMHO it is a reason for an author to take a book that would normally be marked as YA, add some sex and some angst to it and market it to a different sub-set of people (or maybe the same, since lots of YA readers also read adult and also read this New Adult)…but yeah, I struggle with it being defined as a genre (which is really isn’t…adult (in terms of reading level isn’t a genre); YA isn’t a genre and neither, in my mind is New Adult…) – but that is a story for another day.I gave For Everly 2.5 stars overall, which to me means it was ok, not really good and definitely not great – I finished it. My main issue with the book was with Everly herself. I just struggled with her as a character – she seemed too perfect – major trauma in her life (don’t worry, I won’t say what it is), graduated high school early, worked her way through college and now at the tender age of 22/23 is finishing up her PhD in Physical Therapy (which by the way is a DPT or DPhysio, not a PhD)…right there, that was almost a stopping point for me…see, I am a PhD student – it might not be in physical therapy – but I had a hard time seeing someone her age in a program and that far advanced – most 22 year olds are just finishing college (assuming that they start at 18). And the programs themselves are typically 3-4 years on top of that, which would put her even being generous and assuming no break in education in the 24-27 year range (factoring in early graduation from college, and 3 years in a program) – I know this might be nit-picky, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. Almost as much as her agreeing to practice her therapies off the books and unlicensed…which was the main point behind the story…I guess in order for the story to work, this had to be done, but the ethical side of me is screaming no no no…heck, as a PhD student, I am not even allowed to mention that in a resume because people may be confused and think I have my degree already and yet she is practicing without a license)…And then there is Cole…the baseball player – I mean, what’s not to love…and yes, I get that being injured and in the year your contract is supposed to expire would suck – but why would you risk your career on someone not qualified to treat you…asking the question – What if something had happened and he could no longer play because he used an unqualified therapist…and a very slight gripe – I really hate it when authors use REAL teams in their stories – because anyone that is a fan of said team (or even if they are not) can easily call BS…I would prefer for authors to make up their own teams – use a known location, but imaginary team please)However, for my griping, the writing style wasn’t bad and the mystery was paletable – I kind of wondered the who done it and figured it out a chapter or so before the reveal – but the whole family situation/angst thing was a bit overdone for my liking (and yet another sign of the stereotypical New Adult storyline). I wish I had liked it more because I do think that the author has potential with her writing style – this book just didn’t do it for me…