Love Story - Jennifer Echols

Love Story by Jennifer Echols
RATING:  4 of 5 Stars

GENRE:  Young Adult Fiction, Romance
FORM:  eBook - Nook

SYNOPSIS:  Erin Blackwell has abandon all hopes her Grandmother had for her to study business in college and eventually take over the family horse farm business.  Instead, Erin is studying creative writing with hopes on becoming a published author of romance novels; writing happy endings that she never seems to get in real life.  This decision does come at a cost though, as her Grandmother has cut her off entirely and given the farm and inheritance to Hunter Allen, the handsome stable boy of the farm, and the one boy she has been in love with for as long as she can remember.  Taking her first step as a writer, Erin writes a fictional happy ending for herself and Hunter as her first assignment in her first creative writing class, a story that is to be read and critiqued by all the members of her class.  Unfortunately for Erin, Hunter has transferred to her class and her secret love is out of the bag.  In response to her story, Hunter writes a story of his own geared at getting under her skin, thus beginning an "on paper only" relationship between Hunter and Erin that is, in real life, filled with lies, distrust, and misunderstandings. 

REVIEW:  This book sucked me in and then spit me out, all in less than 24 hours.  I loved the ideas based around this story, Hunter and Erin writing stories about their life and ultimately about their love for one another, ever since I read the books synopsis, I was captivated by the idea.  It has so much potential!

And for the most part I was not disappointed!  Erin and Hunter had so much chemistry and heat.  The tension between the two of them make waiting seem impossible, thus the fact that the book was completed within 24 hours.  The supporting characters were very strong and mostly likable.  There was no real bad guy outside of Erin and Hunter's perception of each other, and their misunderstandings.  Even Erin's Grandmother, however over bearing and controlling she was, didn't seem all that bad, but then I didn't really get to "know" her very well.  Her part of the book was mostly 2nd hand, she only really had a few lines of actual dialog, nothing that I could draw any real conclusions on.

I found Love Story to be a good easy read, entertaining and sexy.

WHAT I LOVED: Ultimately, I found the best part was the building tension between Hunter and Erin.  They circled around each other like starving wild dogs for so long, that when they (their lips) finally met, the fireworks were there for them as well as me.

NOT SO MUCH:  I felt like the book didn't really conclude.  I know this is somewhat by design, but I'm not used to having loose strings left untied I guess.  There was so many decisions, so many things that could happen.  The one scene at the horse race, where Erin won all kinds of money for the fraternity made it obvious that Erin didn't just have one talent or love.  This was eluded to by Hunter many times as well, but we see nothing really more of it.  Then there are things with her Grandmother that were left up in the air just hanging there.  I realize that this book was about Erin and Hunter, and really just about them, but there is so much to life that makes up a person, that even in the end all of the other stuff seemed important enough for me to sit and wonder on.  It was a little bit frustrating, like having this awesome love song only for it to end before the chorus.

SONG DEDICATION:  I may have used this song before, I'm not sure, but I think Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved is a good one for Hunter to sing to Erin...