Click on Cover
Author: Alicia Renee Kline
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Chick Lit, New Adult
Book Rating: 9
Personal Rating: 7
Three angles, none of equal size all adds up to... Intoxicated, otherwise know as a scalene. But Love triangles aside this was a very fun read. I might be a little biased because chick lit is always steamy fun. Erotica is okay, but when steam is funny it's just so much more exciting. As far as chick lit goes this book hits all the good points. The humour is spot on. The sexual tension, oozing through the pages. Shortage of hot men, of course not. Heroine who is woefully unaware of her own beauty and assumes all her friends are infinitely hotter than she... yes. And did i mention the men are tall. Quadruple yes. Anything above six foot two gets mega bonus points as far as I'm concerned. But enough about the steaminess lets get to the plot.
The one thing that I love about this triangle is that it extends beyond the triangle. Usually these books are told through the eye of the heroine but this book does an excellent job of making her friends roles much more prevalent in the tale. As in real life sometimes every ones individual story intertwines somehow. Coincidence, maybe, but it does happen. This novel does a very good job of using the situations of the friends to affect the dilemma of the heroine.
It's nice that the idiot boyfriend, Eric, is just stupid by way of neglect and there isn't anything majorly glaring about him, and on the reverse side it's also nice that the third, Mathew, isn't some mega player and actually has depth, and serious internal baggage. It's not the old, falling for the ladies man leaving the boyfriend who drastically treats the girl like shit combo which is good. These men are actually a bit more believable and not the over hyped up fantasy novel extremes of what they could be.
Most of the humour seems to stem when things get a little bit flirty which is just how I like it in these kinds of novels. Regardless of all the drama chick lits are light, fun, and very feel good and this tale doesn't disappoint on any of these levels. Another great thing is that the lead character Lauren, and her roommate are both starting new phases in their lives so instead of it just being about her journey forward it's about their journey forward. And I have to admit my favourite character is the one who gets the least amount of page time. Lauren's best friend. She is just hilarious.
Even though Eric is a complete and total idiot, what I liked about him was that he was tall dark and handsome. As in not blonde and blue eyed, and he was more lean and sexy instead of buffed and sexy. Tall blonde and big slice of man beef isn't the only type of sexy. That being said, Matthew did not spend nearly enough time topless in the hot tub. But I digress.
The story had good flow. Moved at an almost steady pace, in some points it seemed like the character was intentionally coming up with reasons to avoid the inevitable instead of the drama just happening. And as an artist I'm super psyched to see an interior designer as a main character. If you're going to have a love triangle it might as well be in a top of the line double oven kitchen. Why settle for anything less. And a character who loves to cook. Food is the way to a mans soul after all. Even in a book.
All in all, this was a nice fun, light read that came to a rather heightened end. If your like good humour, which always had perfect timing, a good hefty bit of drama, a loser boyfriend and an infinitely sexy thing on the side, well you'd be a fool not to pic up this novel.
Side notes
Warning, if you don't like spoilers you should stop here. Okay I do love chick lit. It just makes me laugh and smile. It's fun. Sometimes you have fun. But, on the personal rating as much as I was dying to give this book a ten I just couldn't.
Briefly, when someone is heavy flirting with you, his sister who he should be married to tells you he wants you, your best friend tells you he drilled her about you and is head over hills for you. Your dad gives subtle hints that he would be better for you. He let you drive his expensive stick shift sports car. Let you cry on his should when your boyfriend stood you up minutes before your date, cancelled a date with his friend to stay there with you. And did it again when you when your car wouldn't start. Allowed you into his world when he has serious self doubt issues. Wrote that he loved you too. Too means also which means he knows you love him too and now it's in ink so he can't take it back. And never makes a serious move because he's respectful that you have a man and it's your decision to choose not his. There's no way you can't know he wants you. And if he tells you after your boyfriend asks you to marry him that the boyfriend obviously loves you and you should do what's best for you, pulls out of a kiss you initiated and says you don't want to be the cheating woman your boyfriend says you are. All this adds up to he's a perfect gentlemen and there's no way you can't know he wants you. You'd have to be blind. And most importantly he's right. If your boyfriend accused you of cheating you shouldn't be initiating kisses with someone you know you'll get naked with if he kisses you back. For me the further she committed to not realizing he wanted her and then assuming he didn't at the end; It just wasn't believable enough for me and I got more frustrated and I started out on such a high and then pft. It just kinda sunk.
The boyfriend was done well though. It wouldn't be a good tale if the lead didn't stay with the man she knows is wrong for her on the hopes she might be able to make it right. He'll change, after ten years not likely, but I get it. The only thing I didn't get was the end. If your man ambushes you at a party you are throwing for the competition, and does the one thing he's never ever done for you, and then does the other one thing you wanted him to do as well, and then you say to the second guy right before the kiss that shouldn't have happened, don't you think it's convenient that knowing I'd be there he picked that time to do all of this. Sigh. If she's smart enough to see he's playing her, then why not act like he's playing her. It just didn't make sense to me.
And if you're single and in a triangle then yes, one of the guys needs to step up their game. But as it was very, very well done in this novel, when you are not single, it's the woman's decision to stay or leave. What the second guy did, by making his intentions known but not pushing too far was the right thing to do. Expecting him to stake claim on you like your boyfriend would mean he's the type of guy who likes to move in and steal other peoples women, and who wants to date that. Her using that fact of not claiming her as her soul reason for believing he obviously doesn't want her was ridiculous, especially with all the previously stated evidence. There's much more evidence in the book too.
And lastly I saw the end of this book coming, for me that's a problem, but most people who read books like this thrive on the anticipation. Who will she choose, what will she do, why wont she just go with this guy. And so on. In that regard this book is brilliant, I'd go so far as to say it's excellent. But there's something to do with driving and drinks and so forth and I just knew where it was going, and it kinda brought me down a bit. I ignored it and just enjoyed the story once I got an idea of where it was going.
That's pretty much it. I just couldn't find her denial of the fact that she felt like ripping his clothes of every time she saw him, or all the signs from him and her friends, as believable. It just didn't work for me. That's why as perfectly crafted this novel is I did give it 9 because it's a great book in it's genre. But for me I started of at a perfect eleven and slowly started to climb down. Too bad cause it's a really well written book. And again I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading these types of novels, this book is definitely not a miss.
Blurb
Intoxicated follows our main character, Lauren, as she moves across state due to a job promotion. In doing so, she leaves her boyfriend behind and does her best to make a long distance relationship work. Most of the time she fails miserably.
Factor into the mix her new roommate's brother and a pseudo-love triangle develops. Her new crush appears to be a knight in shining armor, but he's haunted by mistakes from his past. His self-loathing only intensifies when he realizes that what he's done may make Lauren walk away forever.
Does she stay with the old familiar of her long-time love, or does she open her heart to her new crush? Will it even matter if both of them reject her anyway?
About The Author
I'm a self-published author who joined this crazy world in 2013. I enjoy blogging about my writing specifically, social media, self-publishing and the random off-the wall topic. I always have a story playing out in my head. When I'm not writing them down, I work in the insurance industry. I live in my fiction's backyard - Northeast Indiana.
The fact that she realises the world is crazy and is not afraid to talk about of the wall topics is worth a purchase all in itself. And inside your head is the best place to have your stories play out. It's so much more fun up there.
No comments:
Post a Comment