It seems sometimes like I'm on a never ending quest to find quality New Adult novels. I purchased Last Will and Testament on a whim, and was pretty pleased with it overall. Though it did have some seemingly cliché plot elements (why oh why are there so many student/teacher romance stories in NA? Aren't there other illicit romantic pairings that authors can come up with?) I appreciated that the overarching story had a lot of depth, with Lizzie suddenly becoming the guardian of her two little brothers after her parent's deaths. At 18 you're pretty much still a kid yourself, and though Lizzie definitely made her share of mistakes I appreciated her resilience in such a situation. Yes, this is a romance novel in many ways but it felt well balanced with the family aspect of the plot too. I also enjoyed that Lizzie was influenced by her mother's heritage and the Filipino culture, as I'm always thrilled to see diversity in protagonists. Max, my boyfriend, is also half Filipino so I noticed some parallels in the cultural things that were mentioned. The one thing that was hard for me to get past at times was how abrasive Lizzie was, constantly swearing (swearing almost never bothers me but I found its use to be excessive and a bit repetitive here) and having a bad attitude 90% of the time. Her situation was definitely a tough one to be in but she could be hard to empathize with at times.
Overall: Though the teacher/student romance seems overdone, the romance in this novel was OK, but more importantly the topics of family, grief, and responsibility were handled well and integrated into the plot in a unique way. I wouldn't call this book a favorite but I'm glad I read it and it was one of the better New Adult reads I've come across. This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
Reading updates
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Started reading
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10 July, 2016:
Finished reading
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10 July, 2016:
Reviewed
