Saturday, November 29, 2014

Book Review: The Shape of My Heart by Ann Aguirre

The Shape of My Heart (2B Trilogy)
By Ann Aguirre
Release Date: November 25, 2014
Source: Netgalley
Summary: Some people wait decades to meet their soul mate. Courtney Kaufman suspects she met hers in high school only to lose him at seventeen. Since then, Courtney's social life has been a series of meaningless encounters, though she's made a few close friends along the way. Especially her roommate Max Cooper, who oozes damaged bad-boy vibes from every pore. 

Max knows about feeling lost and trying to move beyond the pain he's been on his own since he was sixteen. Now it's time to find out if he can ever go home again, and Courtney's the only one he trusts to go with him. But the trip to Providence could change everything because the more time he spends with Courtney, the harder it is to reconcile what he wants and what he thinks he deserves.

It started out so simple. One misfit helping another. Now Max will do anything to show Courtney that for every heart that's ever been broken, there's another that can make it complete.
 

Review: Ever since I read the titles for the novels of this series, I just had to read them. I grew up on The Backstreet Boys, so of course I was drawn to these books. Not to mention the covers are awesome and they promised emotional new adult romances I wouldn't be able to put down. 

Ever since Courtney lost the one person she's cared about the most in high school, she's been in meaningless relationships where she simply wants to feel and not become emotionally involved. Max has never had anyone there for them, so when he decides to confront his past and see if he can reconcile with his family, Courtney is the only person he trusts to come and help him through it. During their trip to Max's hometown, though, Max and Courtney grow even closer and start feeling things they both know they shouldn't. As their feelings become impossible to ignore, Courtney and Max realize how different their backgrounds really are and their true feelings for each other are put to the test as both Courtney and Max's worlds catch up to them. 

When I started this book, I found it really hard to connect with Courtney. The way she was described was very hard to picture and I just didn't find myself caring about her on a personal level. She would constantly say how she knew she wasn't pretty and just "worked with what she had." Too many people were blatantly mean to her about her body type and how she looked, and it just got to be a little too much. I love it when the main characters of books reflect more realistic body images, but there was just something about Courtney that rubbed me the wrong way. As for Max, I really liked his character and how we got to see him with his family, but we didn't really get to see him in his life outside of his time with Courtney. She talked about how he was seen as a sort of player but I feel like we never saw that side of him. I just wish we got to see them in more social situations outside of their family and roommates. 

As for the storyline, I think it was dragged out a bit too much. It took me almost an entire week to get through this book because I wasn't as interested in what they were doing as I wanted to be. Sure, they both go through some very emotional times and have to reflect on what they really want in life, but this story could have been a lot of shorter and the characters would have still gone through the same amount of development. I did, though, really like Courtney's relationship with Max once they were back at school and how different they became once they were together. They both looked at their lives in a different way and learned not only more about each other but also more about themselves and what they really wanted out of life. 

Overall, I enjoyed this story but didn't find myself loving it. I wanted more connection with the main character and more to happen than what did. I enjoyed the emotion and growth in Max and Courtney's relationship, but the way they handled the huge problem thrown their way near the end didn't seem to correlate to how they acted towards each other in the beginning of the book. While I wasn't as big of a fan of this book as I wanted to be, I still think I'm going to check out the first two books of the 2B trilogy to see how the other couples featured in this book got their start.


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