Changed

Author: Alicia Renee Kline
Genre: Romance/comedy/chik-lit
Book Rating: 9
Personal Rating: 9

Okay.  Having read all of this author's books I can say they do indeed keep getting better.  This one, if I am being honest made the biggest jump into better from its predecessor.  I just couldn't get enough of this book.  Just fun fun fun.  So lets knock out two things first then get into it.

Firstly this did nothing to make me dislike the book it just bugged me considering it was right after the prologue.  Our star Gracie tells us there's a flashback coming.  Now I can say for a fact that I always knew, in the previous book when they where coming.  The author set them up the way most authors do.  So I have no reason to doubt her ability to pull off a flash back.  I actually think I said just when i was like enough... there were no more :) so they didn't even bug me that much.  This did, because the set up in the prologue was so well executed that when i saw flash back, naturally i assumed, like most flashbacks, it would go right back to where the prologue left off.  Of course it doesn't because this book isn't told from those characters point of view.  Basically the book starts in chapter one and works amazingly well with out that little quip.  In my opinion, it was written well enough to not tell me the reader we were going back only one day in time.

And the other section where my favourite character, Gracie, has the one of three monologues in this whole book detailing the events of marriages and friendships and what not, the book works well enough to stand alone, back history too much for new readers, old readers already know, and it just slows the pace down in the beginning.

Now on to the amazeballsness.  This book successfully doesn't do the one thing most books in this genre does, have the type of drama that's sorta just there.  The reason why this relationship couldn't work out was believable, real, grounded in reality without all of the overhypedness of these types of stories.  I can say safely and truthfully that in this book i could go along for the ride.  There were none of those, why did the characters do this.  Honestly she isn't stupid enough for, or the seriously I know you just did that to make me cry obviousness.  And without the typicalness of said required situations, there is still drama.  Still humour.  Still steamy sexy situations.  Yes all the notes of good romance girl novel fair is actually still here without the garden variety plot points used to get such laughs and emotions out of its readers.

No cheating boyfriends, none of the love triangle drama, no dirty secrets to find out.  It was real, refreshing, and downright hilarious.  And it all felt like it actually could happen in real life.  It just goes to show that you can have good drama, good emotional depth, humor and flirtation galore without using the typical ways of getting there.  I loved this book.  I loved Gracie.  Especially the fact that she isn't blonde.  Black hair for the win.  There are only two blondes in this book and neither of them are the star player in this novel.  Another cliche ditched.  

I laughed so much because Gracie is my fave.  Because she is real.  The most honest.  The most perceptive, and is sure of herself.  When faced with a situation, yes she was heartbroken, yes she wanted something she could not have, but she firmly faced the pain and moved on regardless of the fact that it was difficult.  Didn't drag us through the muck of her emotions.  Handled it in Gracie style and flair and just did what had to be done.  So, to be fair you felt it more because there was no denial of feelings.  They were felt, but she didn't let those feelings rule her.  It made the emotion for me as a reader that more felt because no matter how laughable her internal dialogues were at times, you knew the place it was coming from and that she was boldly going forward all the same.  That's the type of female lead I can jump in front of a speeding train for.

Her being my favourite character I was hoping she wouldn't do any of the somewhat typical stuff the other girls did.  And no the author did not disappoint.  And the male lead.  Sex appeal that went beyond being hot.  Nice, kind, a good father.  A hopeless romantic who had, gasp, given up on romance.  Noooooo.  But his reasons were all a part of the realness that made the drama connect on a much better level for me than the other books.  I just loved him.  A lot.  Especially for his faults.  This was a character who needed growth and he got it.  You could feel his struggle as the book progress and it made the pay off in the end that much more worth it.  I could go on forever but I'd be repeating all the stuff I've said about Gracie about him.

So my fave girl finally got her book.  It's the best in the series, this guy was def my guy of choice.  I mean come on he's a cop, you can't not like a man in uniform especially one with a head of sexy curly hair that refuses to curl uniformly.  Why the four stars.  Okay this is most def going to be a spoiler but it must be said.

Other than that first monologue already mentioned which i ignored, there aren't any.  Not a single one.  And this author usually has quite a few.  In fact my brain moved so effortlessly through this book i was screaming perfect ten.  When it got to the end I was like.  Yes it's all gonna work out, not that I had any doubt it would considering my remain page count.  I feared the dreaded continuation though.  Then, monologue.  And the biggest one yet.  I cringed.  I, sorry to the author, didn't read it.  Mostly for one reason.  I knew everything that was going to be in it.  That is how close to the end of the book it came.  There was nothing else to say.  And it was the only not real thing in the book.  Who just bust out into a monologue to confess their undying love in the middle of a dinner party you shouldn't even be at.  And because i glossed over it i missed the one thing i was waiting for in the whole book.  Gracie's first tears.  I knew it was coming, but didn't know when.  I didn't even know he bolted from the scene after crying inducing monologue.  I, unfortunately was that irritated by this aprox 2.5 pages of confession.  Maybe two.  can't remember how many kindle swipes it was.

Why it bothered me.  All the good things i said above about realness this just didn't fit in.  What would've fit is if they handled it the way they did the entire book.  I like you, you like me.  It's about time you came to your senses lets eat, and just completely acted like there was nothing to tell.  They had handled things very normally up until this extremely unexpected and wordy monologue.  Then another, thankfully shorter, one at the end.  And the spill of the events from Lauren in the epilogue, if it just went straight to the phone call i would've been like wtf!  There has to be more pages.  Interest But the lead up deflated my interest a bit.

So yeah I'm big on endings.  Very big.  And this book was so exceptionally good, that even my supreme disappointment in the entire, not a small part either, ending of this book could not undo it's brilliance.  So I gave it four stars.  Who cares.  It was well written, the pacing was on point, the main characters where beyond believable/relateable, and the drama made a realness kind of sense.  Honestly what more could you possibly ask for in a book.  When you figure it out let me know cause as it stands the answer is nothing.  Nothing at all.