Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Addicted to You Review + Giveaway

 
Addicted to You
Author: Colina Brennan
Hosted by: GCRPromotions

 
 
When twenty-one-year-old Leah Carter's latest one night stand burglarizes her apartment, her roommate forces her to attend therapy for sex addicts. Leah insists she isn't a sex addict; she just doesn't do relationships. After all, sooner or later, everyone lets you down.

At first, the group sessions are little more than an education on how to be promiscuous. Until she meets the newest addict—blue eyes, killer body, and a smile that tempts relapse.

Psychology student Will McLean is posing as a fellow addict while researching a case study on unusual addictions. But the more he learns about Leah, the more certain he is that his desire to break through her walls and unearth her secrets has nothing to do with his assignment.

As the uncertainties spike alongside the sexual tension, the only thing Leah knows for sure is that falling in love would be disastrous. Too bad love might be one addiction she can't kick.
 
 
I rate Addicted to You Three and One Half Leaves. The moment I read the synopsis for this story, I was hooked. It was the originality of the storyline that drew me in. I have never read a book about two (sort of) addicts falling in love. Addicts meeting in rehab? Done, but not two characters falling for each other at addiction meetings.
 
Leah is forced by her roommate to attend 20 sex addiction meetings, because one of her conquests stole all of their belongings from their apartment. Because Leah needed this apartment to live and because her roommate was her one and only friend, I understood why she agreed to this. In any other scenario, I would have said the believability factor was missing. Since we are discussing the believability factor, I will say it was missing in regards to the meeting's instructor. The author wrote the character to be more annoyed than supportive to the other addicts and their story. Most addiction meeting instructors are either working psychologists who were assigned to the meetings, or they are individuals who have overcome their own addictions and can now empathize with the addicts. I felt his character was condescending and just plain miserable. Granted, his character provided some interesting research for the professor's study, but I wish I could have understood why he acted the way he did.
 
Leah is a very different character from other female leads I have read, and in a way, there is something very honest about who she is and the choices she makes. Her relationship with her little brother, Elijah, is my favorite fictional, sibling relationship to date. Elijah is a fantastic character. He is so sweet, smart, and endearing. He gives Leah a purpose in life, which is to take care of him, since their parents have nothing to do with them. I will say it was difficult for me to believe she would leave him in that rundown mansion in the middle of nowhere with parents who didn't even cook meals for him. Leah does fight with her parents to move Elijah in with her, but I feel like her character would have done it way before she actually did.
 
The male lead, Will, is a handsome, blue-eyed student attending the sex addict meetings to obtain information on the meeting instructor's approaches for sobering the addicts for his work study program. He doesn't expect to have feelings for Leah, but he does, and the story does get a bit hot and steamy at the end of a session and at the back of a theatre. These scenes left me wanting so much more, but I was satisfied later on in the story. We will leave it at that. I really enjoyed Will's character, because he was a genuine guy. He quits the study after he tells his professor about his feelings for Leah, which I thought was admirable. It took some guts to quit the study and risk losing his spot in the program for Leah.
 
There was one major storyline flaw that I have to point out. The author placed a lot of focus in the beginning of the story on how Leah didn't know Will's name. When referring to him, the female character would call him "blue eyes." During the theatre scene, Will's best friend, Finn, interrupts their attempt to exit for some dirty-time by calling his name. He even says his name a second time during this conversation. With this being an ARC, I was going to overlook it, but then Leah's character had an internal monologue a chapter or two later about how she would spend time guessing his name. If Leah would have had a name for "blue eyes," she could have tracked him down, since they attended the same college. I thought this was a major mistake in the storyline, and so I gave this review four leaves instead of five.
 
Addicted to You is a delicious and fun read. You will adore the relationship between Elijah and Leah, and you will fall in love with Will. Even the supporting characters are fun to read about. I am assuming the author has planned this story as a stand alone, but I wouldn't mind reading another book about Leah and Will. I'd like to see Elijah as he grows up, and how that affects the main character's relationship.  

 
 
 

Colina Brennan is a new adult writer with a love for the fantastical and the romantic.
When she isn’t writing, she’s attached at the hip to her kids or chasing her dog or daydreaming about what she wants to write next.
 

 
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2 comments:

  1. It just looks like a book that I would love!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a storyline that I haven't read before. I love reading new things :-)

    ReplyDelete