If You Stay by Courtney Cole
Release Date: 02/05/2013
Publisher: Lakehouse Press
24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole. Seriously. He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match. But he’s got his reasons. His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count. As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade. So he slipped far, far from it. Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right? Wrong. And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila. Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe. When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness. But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it. He knows that. And he’s working on it. But is that enough to make her stay?
Warning: Crude language
If You Stay was a contemporary romance that I really enjoyed. It's about this "asshole" (who I didn't think was much of one, just really fucked up) and Mila who are attracted to each other.
What I really liked was the characters. I liked Pax for trying to get over his emotional unstable-ness. And Mila for shining a light into his apparent fucked up life. Their romance was so sweet and I was really emotional during the whole book :3 JUST AH... ALL THE FEELZ. And the swearing made moments comical haha. Like those moments when I'm supposed to be serious I just laugh 'cause they swore and I'm just like, haha lol.
I really liked everything but I think this book could've turned out better. I would make some changes to the plot. It wasn't as interesting as other contemporaries I've read. The plot was really focused on his apparent fuck-up but I think it's just emotional issues. And I didn't like it when Mila just kept pushing him away after he did something wrong. I mean, he told her before that he would mess up. He's not going to be perfect! He even told her that. He was begging for forgiveness but she wouldn't take him back! And I'm like, BITCH.. JUST BE THE GOOD IN HIS LIFE AND TAKE HIM BACK.
Whew.. Rant over. Besides that small issue I have, I really enjoyed the book and I give B+ for effort.
Rating:
When you first started out saying they were attracted I actually cringed. But that B+ in the corner of my eye got me curious as to WHAT made you give it a B+. Haha, guess it's more than fuck-ups. And the characters sound so much realer than I would think! :D It's sounds absolutely insanely/adorable. Don't know why I think that way. XD
ReplyDeleteLove your review, Ariella! XD