There is so much I enjoyed about Emma and Zach getting together – friends (of a sort) to lovers, high school crush, taboo relationship, reformed rake … there’s just a lot here to make me happy!

Zach is misunderstood in quite a few places throughout the story. He’s known to be a bit of a player but he really is a nice guy. He’s got a good heart, does a lot for his friends, and when he comes across a girl he wants to settle down with he’s willing to do a lot for her. Unfortunately she’s got some baggage that makes it hard to believe he’s sincere.

Most of the time I really liked Emma but she really doesn’t give Zach a break. She’s struggling with her attraction to him and is putting a lot of that on him when he really doesn’t deserve it. He may have a history (and really a big part of it was in high school, people!) but he never does anything to her to suggest that he isn’t being true. I think a little openness and a whole lot of good old fashion talking would have helped these too a lot :)

While the story appealed to me and I enjoyed the feelings developing between these two, there were a couple of writing style choices that I found a little strange. One was the way that the people and their lives were revealed to us – it almost felt like this was a middle of a series story but it is the first and all the other characters have books coming up. Blue does a great job of giving you the information that you need but it is presented in a way that it felt like you should know it already and she’s getting new readers up to speed. It doesn’t keep the characters from being interesting (which they are and I’m looking forward to getting their stories, especially Emma’s sister because there is some complicated stuff going on with her) or the story from flowing smoothly, it just seemed an odd choice for a first book in the series.

The other thing was that there were a couple of times when I got a little confused about the timing of things. A chapter would end but when the next one started I wasn’t confident about how much time had elapsed and what happened to the characters during that time. The explanation would come but not before I felt just a little bit lost first. And even then I’m not 100% sure I got all of the details about what happened. It doesn’t keep the story from moving well or for me to feel like I got a complete and enjoyable story, but it felt an odd choice to me.

Overall, though, the fun that is Zach falling in love and winning over Emma far outweighs any trouble spots that come up. With 5 more romances for this group coming soon, I think a lot of this will work itself out and we’ll be left with just the joy of a great love story. And I’m ready to find out all their secrets (Emma’s sister especially – that girl is just a big ball of conflict).

*** I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s. ***