California Nights

by Emily Santoro

[Jack]

1.5 stars. This was a light fluffy read with not much character depth a lot of telling instead of showing. But the few chapters of the next book (not sure if that's the whole book or not) made me sooo angry.

Natalie is trying to make it in the professional surfing/surfing modeling business, but does so in her spare time when she is not at her teaching job. She gets restless with her love life or lack there of, not really feeling anything with the male partners she's been with. But it never crosses her mind that she could be interested in women which I find a little odd.

One of the major reasons why I rated this so low is because there was little to no character development as well as the fact that we are told everything instead of showing it. Characters emotions are shown on the surface but it never goes any deeper then that. I wanted to know so much more about what both characters felt, what they were thinking.

The story moved very quickly with Natalie meeting Taylor at a beach party in Hawaii. I thought htey would get to know each other more before getting serious, but that wasn't the case. There was some drama regarding Natale staying in the closet (even though she didn't consider herself a lesbian) with her surfing manager which was handled pretty well. Natale saw through her manages homophobic ways. There is a classic case of not communicating with a potential love interest which causes massive and unnecessary drama between the two protagonists.

Everything is wrapped up in a bow by the end of the book which wasn't bad, but still left much to be desired. But it wasn't a bad read for something quick and full of fluff.

What enraged me most was what came after the book in what I'm assuming is a very rushed 'novella'. Never have I been more enraged at a 'story'. Things are going well for Natale and Taylor, they're in a very committed, exclusive, loving relationship. Natalie has a new manager whom is female and also a lesbian. Because Natalie seems to be a Mary-Sue with all the hot girls falling for her the new manager also has the hots for Natalie.

This in turn makes Natalie doubt her relationship with Taylor, especially when things get heated. Without a second thought Natalie CHEATS!! Has absolutely no remorse for what she's done! And does it repeatedly! Even contemplating leaving Taylor for the manager. What stops Natalie from leaving? Only the fact that an earthquake occurred and Taylor could have DIED! Only the threat of death made Natalie release she should choose Taylor and not the manager. But she still never feels any remorse! The book ends there with Natalie making this choice. We never know if she tells Taylor that she cheated, or if she even felt bad about it. What a cop out.

Leaving behind the second 'novella' I feel like the story was kinda half assed and not nearly as good as it could have been. More descriptions, and not moving so quickly ,and actually building a romance between the two characters would have been a lot better.