REVIEW: Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Title: Love Story 
Author: Jennifer Echols
Genre: Young Adult
Source: review copy from author
Published: July 2011 by MTV Books

She's writing about him. he's writing about her. And everybody is reading between the lines..

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.

Why I Read this Book: When Jennifer Echols put a call out on Twitter (and her blog) that she was looking for Book Bloggers to read and review her latest release Love Story, I read the book’s premise and jumped at the chance to read it. I hadn’t read any of her novels but have heard great things about them. And I wanted to experience it for myself.

What I Liked: I loved the idea of Erin and Hunter writing stories for their writing class that had hidden messages for each other. It was fun and juicy to read. I looked forward to seeing what Erin and Hunter would come up with for each of their next stories.

It was fun to see how the class would react to their stories. I liked the class setting and how they critiqued each person’s story. I’ve never been in a writing class myself but if I ever were to, I would definitely want to be in one structured like Gabe’s class.

What I Didn’t Like: I didn’t really like Hunter’s character in the beginning. He came off as arrogant and cocky; he was a little too sure of himself. Which made it a bit difficult for me to feel a connection between him and Erin at first.

I liked Erin for the most part but there were times when she bugged me. She made excuses for Hunter and was a bit too obsessive when it came to him and his actions or whereabouts. She also had a habit of jumping to conclusions without realistically thinking things through.

The ending felt inconclusive. I was expecting a little more; more closure, perhaps in the form of an epilogue. Maybe I just wasn’t ready to let go of Erin and Hunter yet…

Overall Impression: While I liked Love Story, I didn’t love it. The author captured my attention (sometimes in a good way and sometimes not) and I wanted to see how things were going to end for Erin and Hunter. I’ll definitely be checking out this author’s backlist.

The Book Vixen’s Rating: