Addicted by Elle Kennedy
Oh, ugh, me. I don’t know why I did this to myself. I thought, go back to the good ole days, Mandy, when you had no access to Goodreads or in-depth summaries of books and play a game of “Let’s See What This Book Holds for Me.”
Did I never remember that always sucked for me as a child?
Let me start out with the statement: this book wasn’t terrible. It just didn’t work for me and my whole bookish belief system. Although, until this book, I really wasn’t aware that I had a firm bookish belief system. You learn new things every day?
Eh.
Well, okay, maybe I should tell you what this book is even about. Addicted is a second book in Outlaws series by Elle Kennedy. While I never read the first one, I figured enough out from the summary of this book, the first book, and the descriptions in the beginning of the book to create a semi-decent picture of this world. Apparently, it’s after some major world wars and there are some nasty Enforcer people that are bad government figures that try to kill the Outlaws – who are always on the run and in hiding. We’re introduced to our main characters, Lennox and Jamie, who have just teamed up with this other band of Outlaws (I’m assuming the peeps from the first book).
Now, I thought this was going to be a great little romance. See, Lennox is in love with Jamie and has been since forever. However, Jamie doesn’t realize it and is into this guy, Rylan. After he spurns her, she seeks out Lennox as a rebound and what was supposed to be a night with him turns into something more.
Sounds like an adorable friends-to-lovers romance, right? It’s one of the oldest tropes in the books, but it’s one that always gets me. I always feel the feels hard for it, so I expected this to be great – and I mean, the setting was interesting, too, so why not? And I mean, the tattoos on the cover didn’t hurt either – okay, fine, they were a major draw.
Anyway, what I did not realize was all the “cheating” that would go on in this book. In the romances I’ve been reading lately, the guy or gal that is the obstacle to the friends getting together is gone real quick or at least have it figured out quickly. It’s half way through this book before the two friends get together – and that’s only after they both hookup with quite a few other people. I had to keep going back to look at the summary to actually make sure Lennox and Jamie were supposed to be the ones to get together.
I didn’t know what to do with that. And when they did get together-ish, they were still seeing other people, and I really couldn’t deal with that. I didn’t know that I was one of the people that hated cheating and couldn’t stand it in their books. I’m not sure this really counts as cheating, but I don’t know what else to call this. It just felt weird – and I couldn’t get behind the romance because of that even though I really liked Lennox and Jamie.
So, ugh.
I also got to the part where I skimmed a lot to just see what was even happening with the romance, so I really can’t comment on the plot or characterization as much as I usually do. Again, this isn’t a terrible book. My judgment on it was solely based on the romance and the personal issues I had with. If you can deal with it, then this book might be good for you. I just couldn’t – so a two crown rating for me, and a visit from Cinderella.
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What are your thoughts? Do you a major book turnoff like cheating? What is your favorite trope? I’d love to know yours!
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