As Long As You Love Me

by Ann Aguirre

[Leah]

Last month I downloaded two of Ann Aguirre’s new New Adult novels based entirely on the fact all of the titles in the trilogy are Back Street Boy titles. Yes, I am that shallow. I love the Back Street Boys. It’s so old-school, and I’d love to know if Ann loves them as much as the rest of the world do. (SHE MUST, SURELY!) I absolutely devoured I Want It That Way – finding Nadia and Ty’s story to be fast-paced, and so delightful. It was like no other New Adult book I’ve ever read, and it was just so fresh and wonderful. Honestly, you need to read it. So I was quite excited to dive into the second novel in the trilogy As Long As You Love Me, and I was even more thrilled to realise this was all about Lauren and Rob, Nadia’s best friend and brother, and while it was good enough; for me, it wasn’t on the same level as I Want It That Way.

I wanted to love As Long As You Love Me as much as I did I Want It That Way, but it didn’t quite grab me the way IWITW did. It didn’t really help that initially Rob was in a relationship, meaning that inadvertently or not, Lauren was kinda the cause. Which isn’t very nice. It’s always best when two single people hook up. Throw in a current relationship and things get quite sticky, and awkward, and blame is laid at the feet of the home-wrecker etc, etc. But I was eventually taken in by Rob and Lauren. They’re cute together, which helps. And Rob is like no other male character I’ve ever met. His insecurities were sad, but it was nice to see. So many male characters are all manly and won’t confess when something is wrong, but Rob wears his heart on his sleeve and I loved that, and I loved that Lauren proved him wrong, proved to him that he was worthy of love, and he wasn’t stupid and worthless (and, for what it’s worth, I wish Lauren had told that to his parents, because no parents should treat their kid like they’re good for nothing).

Whilst I immediately adored Nadia in IWITW, I struggled to like Lauren. I totally had kudos for her for coming home and admitting she got it wrong in Michigan, but she actually acted so badly in Michigan that it left an imprint. What she did to Max? AWFUL. (Although it was great to finally get the answer of what happened the night Max got beat up in IWITW.) And there were just times I questioned her. She does lots of questionable things, especially later on in the novel. I didn’t understand how she could help Rob with his dream of designing and making furniture by putting him on the web, and then get surprised when the world notices. I mean, DUH. That’s what you’re doing it for, am I right? There were just moments when she irritated me. When I wanted to tell her to stop being so bloody selfish. It was a struggle. It helped that I loved Rob so much, I’ll tell you.

I would have liked the book infinitely more if the whole separation thing had been dealt with differently. It was mean. I understood why Lauren did it, but from what we learnt about Rob and how we knew his self-esteem wasn’t the greatest, Lauren did the absolute worst thing anybody could have done to another person, ever. It was cruel. It made me want to go and give Rob a hug and maybe take him for myself. Overall, I was disappointed with As Long As You Love Me. It had its moments, and Rob and Lauren were super cute when they were together, doing house stuff, or going for dinner, or to karaoke, but there was always something there in regards to Lauren. I never felt entirely convinced by her, which was a crying shame. But Rob? There should be more men like him in fiction. It was refreshing to see a real man, with real emotions and fears. I can’t wait for The Shape of My Heart, as it’s Max’s story (although shouldn’t there be four books – why does poor Angus not get a story??) and I loved Max in IWITW.