Title: Stir Me Up
Author: Sabrina Elkins
Genre: Young Adult (Mature) Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Number of Pages: 286
Source: Netgalley
| Cami Broussard has her future all figured out. She'll finish her senior year of high school, then go to work full-time as an apprentice chef in her father's French restaurant, alongside her boyfriend, Luke. But then twenty-year-old ex-Marine Julian Wyatt comes to live with Cami's family while recovering from serious injuries. And suddenly Cami finds herself questioning everything she thought she wanted. Julian's all attitude, challenges and intense green-brown eyes. But beneath that abrasive exterior is a man who just might be as lost as Cami's starting to feel. And Cami can't stop thinking about him. Talking to him. Wanting to kiss him. He's got her seriously stirred up and her senior year has just gotten a lot more complicated.... |
I'm going to be in the minority when I say this, but I really didn't care for this book. It saddens me, because I really thought I would love it. For the first half of the book I did. I loved how Cami gave Julian crap for being so moody and awful to everyone. I enjoyed it when she threw a muffin at him for being so mean once. I got to the 70 percent mark in the book and as soon as Cami and Julian got together I started struggling to continue reading it, and I don't know why because the romance part between them was really well done. The problem was with me-I just couldn't connect to either of them as a couple, but loved them otherwise. I just thought the tropes used were really predictable, and this was one of those Young Adult books that I just felt old reading it because so many little things bugged them that had I been in the age demographic this book was meant for I think I would have over looked them and fallen head over heals for Julian and Cami. As it stands, I think Cami was just a little too perfect...but at the same time it was nice to have a normal YA heroine who was just concerned about school, work and boys and not much else.
I thought the chemistry between Cami and Julian was great. I loved them together, but for me it was just too unbelievable. I just had a hard time with the hero being out of high school and in love with her even if there was only a 3 year age difference. I know this was a coming of age story, but Cami got on my last nerve with should I go to college or not? She thought her dad was being all mean by making her consider it, but I actually thought that was great parenting....which made me feel really old.
One of the things that really bugged was that we were told over and over again how many hours Cami works at her dad's restaurant, and how she passed out once from not taking a break because she worked all day long. You know what bothered me about that? There are labor laws that say a minor can't work more then 5 hours a day without taking a break. I know it's her dad's place and all, but having worked a lot of places I can't see why her dad just didn't follow the law and make sure she got her breaks, etc. I know that's the adult in me being sensible, but I had to wonder why it took so long for her dad to cut back on her hours, etc in the book.I still can't really pinpoint where this book went wrong for me and why I ended up not enjoying it as much as I thought I would, but it might have something to do with the tropes in this book just not doing it for me, but I still always feel bad when I don't love a book like I think will....
