Evie has lived her entire life under her abusive father's thumb. He controls everything. Where she goes to college, who she sees, what she does. But when she meets Van--a punk who shows her how different life could be--she realizes how much she's been missing.
Van offers her excitement, protection, love...and most of all, sex--even if he's at first reluctant to give her all the things she's been craving. She wants to explore this new world of arousal and desire, but Van is only too aware of how fragile she is, how innocent...
And how much is at stake, when their love is forbidden.
I very much enjoyed this book about Evie who starts spying on Van as she watches him buy pot from her next door neighbor. When she is caught, he takes care of the literal fallout when she trips over some gardening materials, hits her head and passes out. They talk a bit before he leaves and she starts watching for him once a week. Slowly they begin to get to know each other. Van is sweet and tattooed and wonderful. Evie is conscious of the fact that there is a lot that she doesn't know but she is all for trying to experience life. She finds herself looking forward to spending time with Van but she also tends to always assume the worst. She puts different meanings to Van's comments but before things can get to far into "Big Misunderstanding"-land, Van usually figures out what she thinks and has no reservations about bluntly correcting her.
Evie's dad is abusive to her and her mother which means that any interactions with Van must be hidden. There are some close calls which build tension but when things finally snap, I was slightly disappointed by how small the final confrontation was. Overall, I felt that Van and Evie are in a strong enough relationship to make it last over the long term but I would have appreciated a longer book (it doesn't feel short-changed at this length, I just wanted more) with perhaps some time spent in Van's head. He was so wonderful that I would have liked to get inside his space a bit more.
Reading Challenges
I Love Library Books
Literary Pickers
105 Challenge
Contemporary Romance
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New to You
I borrowed this book from my local public library.
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