I'm giving this book 2 stars, and honestly, one of them is a pity star. But let me explain that...
Frigid and I got off on the wrong foot and we just couldn't get back on track. I honestly don't think it was a 1 star book the entire time, but the problem was just that I walked into it hating Kyler and I couldn't get over it.
Here's a lovely quote from Kyler when he's at a bar/club, basically letting a girl ride him:
Sometimes I had no idea how I ended up in situations like this. Okay. That was a bald-faced lie. What was between my legs was how I ended up in situations like this.
Yes, when in doubt, just blame your penis. Kyler is a huge man whore, taking home a different woman every single night. And his answer for why he does that? It was more or less, "It's not my fault, it's my penis's." It's like he's saying he just can't help it because he has a penis. Boo hoo. Poor freaking you.
But here comes the better part... Kyler is sitting there with this woman practically riding him, when he glances over at the bar and sees Sydney... talking to a guy. His response to this?
Syd really shouldn't be at the bar by herself. Being with Paul didn't count. She needed someone to look out for her, to keep an eye on things.
And Kyler then proceeded to run over there and yank her away from Paul, because heaven forbid that she speak to a man! And I hated his "Sydney is so helpless and needs looking after" attitude. This kind of thing normally doesn't catch my attention. I've read books where it didn't bother me at all, but other reviewers mentioned it. But in this book, it really stood out. As the book went on, I got so sick of Kyler treating Sydney like a child... then I got even more sick of it when I started thinking that maybe she deserved to be treated that way.
Another awesome example: Sydney is getting out of his car when he runs over her, lifts her down from the car himself, and says:
"You'll hurt yourself."
Because she's totally incapable of getting out of a car..
And despite all that, we're just supposed to accept that Sydney loves him. We're never really told why she loves him, even though for years he's made her cry and blown her off so he could screw other women. We're never shown why he's secretly awesome in spite of all of that. We're just supposed to accept it.
But as I said, eventually I wondered if she did actually deserve to be treated like a child who can't handle herself. After a while, I began to notice that Sydney cries (or wants to cry) A LOT!
I wanted to cry—to sit down in the snow and cry.
I wanted to cry. Like a fat, angry baby who wanted to be fed level of crying.
"Don't cry, baby." [..] That only made her cry harder.
I'd cried then. I was about to cry again.
I prayed to God I didn't start crying like a freak in the restaurant.
I wanted to cry, to scream, to rage, and to shove my head under the pillow.
I wanted to cry again, like a baby, because that was the confirmation of all that he'd said.
Put all that together with the way she handled herself sometimes.. and she just came across as extremely... weak. She was a weak character. She just sat around and moped and cried and secretly crushed on a man whore.
And the last point I'll bring up: Frigid is one of those books that makes me hate dual point of view. Sometimes I love dual point of view, but in times like this, I hate it. The problem was that we read from Sydney's point of view and learn that she's been "in love with" Kyler for years. Then we read from Kyler's point of view and realize that he also kind of "loves" Sydney. But neither of them say anything. It's so annoying to know that both characters "love" each other but see both of them do NOTHING about it or misread the other person's signals. I just end up sitting there yelling at both characters to grow some balls and say/do something about it!
Plus, there were so many clichés. Let's sum them up:
* A guy who sleeps around.
* A good girl who doesn't like to party.
* Girl secretly loves guy but thinks he'd never like her because she's not a hot piece of ass.
* Guy secretly loves girl but thinks she'd never like him because he's not good enough for her.
* They both deny their feelings.
* But slowly they grow closer together.
* The rest of the clichés are spoilers....
* The girl finally realizes he does love her!
* Cue sex scene.
* At the end, the girl has a moment of doubt and fears that all he actually wanted was sex.
* Cue dramatic, big argument.
* Both characters realize they were being stupid.
* Kiss and make up.
Overall, I'm massively disappointed. It's sad that I can love one J. Lynn book so much (Wait for You) and hate another one. By the end of the book, I was skimming like a mad woman. I just wanted to be done!!
But the reason I'm giving this book 2 stars instead of 1 is because I honestly think my biggest problem with the book was that I got off on the wrong foot with it. I'm not sure I ever really gave it a chance after I decided that Kyler was a dick. Even when he did some nice, possibly redeeming things at the end, I still wasn't okay with it... because earlier he was a dick. So, yes Frigid, you get a pity star. How about that?