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desiree930 's review for:
Windfall
by Jennifer E. Smith
This book was okay. I enjoyed the second half over the first, which dragged quite a bit for me. I felt like a lot of that could've been cut out to tighten up the story and the pacing.
I liked the friendships in this book, and really appreciated the family dynamics. I liked how Alice's Aunt and Uncle were very present in her life and how they treated her as a daughter. The contrast between that dynamic and Teddy's was compelling. I also really liked Leo as a character. His role was to pretty much say what the reader was thinking with no apologies.
The story follows a young girl who buys her best friend (and crush, naturally) a winning powerball ticket and the fallout from all of that. I felt like Teddy's actions after coming into that money was actually very authentic. I don't know many 18 year olds who WOULDN'T blow through at least some of that money. His character frustrated me in parts, for the same reason he was frustrating to Alice. But honestly, I found myself getting more annoyed with Alice at her passivity in her interactions with Teddy. She would get upset because he's acting like a kid who just won the lottery (because that's exactly what he IS) but then just brush it aside and try to appease him. This happened over and over again. They are supposed to be best friends since childhood. I just don't buy that she wouldn't call him out of his nonsense.
Also, there is a slight, minuscule, barely worth mentioning hint of a love triangle which is completely unnecessary. The other 'love interest' has only three or four scenes in the book, before he quietly takes himself out of the equation when he sees he's not going to get the girl. And honestly? I kind of preferred him to Teddy, at least in that point of the book. It really didn't need to be there at all.
All in all, I didn't feel like this book needed to be over 400 pages long. I felt like the same story could've been told in about 100 less pages. That being said, I did enjoy enough of this book and was able to get through it quickly, after the first 100 pages...
I liked the friendships in this book, and really appreciated the family dynamics. I liked how Alice's Aunt and Uncle were very present in her life and how they treated her as a daughter. The contrast between that dynamic and Teddy's was compelling. I also really liked Leo as a character. His role was to pretty much say what the reader was thinking with no apologies.
The story follows a young girl who buys her best friend (and crush, naturally) a winning powerball ticket and the fallout from all of that. I felt like Teddy's actions after coming into that money was actually very authentic. I don't know many 18 year olds who WOULDN'T blow through at least some of that money. His character frustrated me in parts, for the same reason he was frustrating to Alice. But honestly, I found myself getting more annoyed with Alice at her passivity in her interactions with Teddy. She would get upset because he's acting like a kid who just won the lottery (because that's exactly what he IS) but then just brush it aside and try to appease him. This happened over and over again. They are supposed to be best friends since childhood. I just don't buy that she wouldn't call him out of his nonsense.
Also, there is a slight, minuscule, barely worth mentioning hint of a love triangle which is completely unnecessary. The other 'love interest' has only three or four scenes in the book, before he quietly takes himself out of the equation when he sees he's not going to get the girl. And honestly? I kind of preferred him to Teddy, at least in that point of the book. It really didn't need to be there at all.
All in all, I didn't feel like this book needed to be over 400 pages long. I felt like the same story could've been told in about 100 less pages. That being said, I did enjoy enough of this book and was able to get through it quickly, after the first 100 pages...