If Only by A.J. Pine Review

If Only by A.J. Pine
Release Date: March 24, 2014
Publisher: Entangled Embrace; 260 pages
Rating:

Sometimes it takes crossing an ocean to figure out where you belong.

It's been two years since twenty-year-old Jordan had a boyfriend—which means it's been forever since she, well, you know. But now she’s off to spend her junior year in Aberdeen, Scotland, the perfect place to stop waiting for Mr. Right and just enjoy Mr. Right Now.

Sexy, sweet (and possible player) Griffin may be her perfect, no-strings-attached match. He’s fun, gorgeous, and makes her laugh. So why can’t she stop thinking about Noah who, minutes after being trapped together outside the train’s loo, kisses Jordan like she’s never been kissed before? Never mind his impossible blue eyes, his weathered, annotated copy of The Great Gatsby (total English-major porn)…oh, and his girlfriend.

Jordan knows everything this year has an expiration date. Aberdeen is supposed to be about fun rather than waiting for life to happen. But E. M. Forster, Shakespeare, and mistletoe on Valentine’s Day make her reconsider what love is and how far she’s willing to go for the right guy.

The description sold me. This sounded like something that would be so good. And while I did enjoy it, I have to say the first half of the book was so much better than the second half. If it weren't my kindle I was reading it on, this book may have gone sailing across the room. But we'll get to that later. The beginning of the book had me laughing quite a few times. The meeting between Griffin and Jordan was fantastic and they just meshed very well together. I actually fell a little hard for Griffin. Like, I wish I could've pulled Jordan out of the story and inserted myself in her place because he's the type of guy I'd want. So I'm a bit biased toward his character because in my eyes, he was damn near perfect.

But then Jordan runs in to Noah (literally) going to the loo. They get trapped together and it's one of the most exciting and thrilling meetings any two characters can have. Let me tell you. He's a good looking guy whose into literature (bonus for us booknerds) but come on, perfection doesn't just fall in your lap, right?

Do you know what I was bummed about? This book is about this American chick going overseas to Scotland for a year of school and she's in the middle of a love triangle with two American boys. COME ON! You're going to the land of the kilts and you're going to be hung up on two American boys?! Give me a man in a kilt and let me worry about falling in love with an American when I get back. But it's okay, really, because we have a man in a kilt who is like the best friend of the guys and an interest of the romantic sort to Jordan's roommate so at least we're not deprived of the kilt.

For a New Adult book, I found this to be pretty tame. So if you're looking for something a little older than YA but not full of sexy times, this is probably a good book to add to your list. Not saying there's no sexy times, it's just not as often nor as detailed. But it doesn't mean you won't be swooning or anything because you will.

You're probably wondering why I gave this book three stars. I really can't talk about why I took my rating down without really spoiling it but let's just say, a certain character really made me mad more times than I care to admit. To the point of where I was about to write these characters off because I just couldn't take anymore of it. I seriously was about to suffer from a massive case of whiplash and I just didn't want to deal with the physical pain of it. I stuck it out because I had gotten that far, it would've been ridiculous to stop and I'm glad I did because I was happy with the ending.

Thank you so much to Jaime from Rock Star book tours for supplying me with a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review (thank you to Entangled, as well). Also, as always, thank you RSBT for allowing me to be a part of the tour.