TBR Challenge: ‘UNDECIDED’, by Julianna Keyes

The topic of this month is Contemporary

Read in Kindle

Published: Mar-2016

Genre: NA

My Rating: 4 stars

Part of a series: Burnham College #1

Slow beginning. I thought about leaving this book after the first chapters. But then, I just loved it.

In April we had to look for a contemporary novel, so I went to my kindle and chose the first book that I found with a contemporary setting. Soon I discovered that it was more a NA novel than what you could consider contemporary.

OK, so NA is not one of my favourite genres and I haven’t got the slightest idea why this book ended in my kindle. Yes, I saw a DIK A review in All About Romance, but that’s not enough to prompt me to buy a book in a genre I don’t quite enjoy. So it remains a mystery to me why I bought this book.

In the first chapters I was rather bored. First person narrative is interesting only if the person telling the story is someone you want to know something about. Here we’ve got Nora, a girl that in her first year in college partied too much; her grades were awful and got arrested. Now she wants to study and never enjoy a frat party again.

I guess that these first chapters are setting the stage, the environment in which these people live: university parties, public sex with strangers, a lot of booze and fast food. It’s easy to get sidetracked and loose the main objective of studying.

She is looking for an apartment to rent. A boy named Matthew offers a room in his flat which looks perfect for her. But the problem is that ‘Matthew’ is not really someone of that name, but Kellan, a boy she had meaningless sex some months ago. But he doesn’t even remember her, and although she knows it’s a mistake, she accepts to be his roommate.

But the hero of this story is not him but his equally gorgeous best friend, Crosbie. He is handsome, with muscles everywhere, and such a reputation that there’s a special name for his one-night-stands, Crosbabes.

So Nora still has got a kind of crush on Kellan and she doesn’t think of Crosbie, not even when he tries to be nice to her. Is this going to be a triangle story? Nope, although at the beginning I had my doubts.

As I’ve already told, this book was boring at the beginning, that’s why it is not a straight 5-star novel. I did not enter into the story until the moment I realized that Crosbie could be feeling something for Nora and she is oblivious to it. From that moment on (around... 25% of the book? 30%? I don’t remember, but it was after I was struggling with the book for several days) I just couldn’t put it down. I kept on reading, stopping only to eat and going to the bathroom.

I love it when I discover a book that keeps me glued to the page!

It was charming, romantic, funny and, sometimes, heart-wrenching. And of course, there were sexy times that I found really hot and steamy and with a sense inside the story. And all the time you are remembering that there’s that little secret that Nora and Kellan had sex in a closet, and she does not find a good moment to tell it to Crosbie. And you hope that nobody discovers it, that Kellan does not remember it. This is an added tension to the book.

I ended this book with a smile on my face and wanting to read more books like this one.

If only all NA books were like this, respectful towards women, and with just the normal angst of anybody’s life, I think it could easily become one of my favourite genres. I could even tolerate that awful first-person narrative. I don’t want abusive relationships and angsty heroes that spread their unhappiness around them, but just common people falling in love, no matter their age.

So, yes, I want more books like this. I think I will give the second book of the series, Undeclared, a chance. It’s Kellan’s story and got a B+ review in Dear Author and another DIK A in All About Romance.

Up to this point, this is a good year in the TBR Challenge. Last year I chose books that were, generally speaking, rather disappointing. It could be that I spent too much time deciding on which one to read and review, so my expectations were high. This year I just look for the first book in my kindle that fills the description and there you have it, no expectations, sometimes I don’t even know why they are there and they surprise me in the good sense of the word.