Sunday 16 February 2014

(Review) Anything To Have You - Paige Harbison

Title: Anything To Have You
Author: Paige Harbison
Format: ebook, finished copy
Pages: 304 pages
Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary, Romance)
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Date Published: January 28th, 2014

Amazon | Book Depository

Summary (from Goodreads)
Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.
Natalie and Brooke have had each other's backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie--the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be. Then it happens--one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.
Review: 
This is my first time reading a book by Paige Harbison, and I must say I really liked the path that Anything To Have You has taken. I can't really tell for certain if the issues presented in the story itself is anywhere a realistic representative of reality but it was nonetheless engaging.

Natalie, one of our protagonists, is a goody-two-shoes who hasn't quite figured out what she wants after high school. This I find almost completely unrealistic since she has quite a solid taste in dress and music. As far as I know, those kind of people have an inkling of what they want to do in life. Then there's Brooke, our resident IT Girl. I really rooted for her in the beginning but as the story progressed, I felt myself detach from her. She started to feel and look very selfish, and perhaps that's what the author intended to do and in a really unpretentious, unhinged way. 

Aiden and Eric, as commendable as these characters are (as far as boys in contemporary young adult go), I really didn't feel any emotional impact from them towards our female leads. Aiden was the cool, almost detached guy while Eric was reserved to be almost like the backup guy which was left me a bit disappointed. 

I think the most admirable character of all was Natalie's dad. His composure could only be the fruit of years of going over whatever happened with Natalie's mother. His maturity over Natalie's pregnancy was outstanding, almost unrealistic but I have to say it is what I would've hoped would happen in reality. 

Natalie's pregnancy and Brooke's downward spiral was a good method to show their character's degeneration. I still can't believe how Brooke tried to justify her actions. It was despicable and really low, considering how low and unimportant Aiden seemed to her and still acted like the world owed her everything she thought she deserved. Her relationship with Reed in the end wasn't healthy for her, and as much as his speech towards the end seemed very heartfelt, I didn;t think it gave enough impact. It seemed like a sad excuse for Brooke. But hey at least it worked.

In the end, they all got their happy end, or almost, and I certainly loved every second of it. 

Rating: ♚♚♚♚♚

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