Review: Love Story

Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Also by Author: Forget You, Going to Far

Official Website

Description: For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.

Review: I had very conflicting feelings about this book. I honestly couldn't start this review right away. After pondering in the shower, I think I have my thoughts collected.

Love Story tells the tale of Erin Blackwell, aspiring romance writer going to school in the big city. She's left her grandmother, a fortune, a stable-boy and 47 horses to go after her dreams of becoming an author. However, she thinks she's left this stable-boy behind when he walks into her classroom. Right as she's about to share a story that's based on him.

One aspect of the book that I loved was the writing. Throughout the course of the book, Hunter, (the stable-boy), and Erin have to write stories for their creative-writing classes. And all of the stories are about each other. They are metaphor filled, angst-ridden stories that have lots of symbols and deeper meaning that only each other can understand. I mean, even I was confused a few times with the stories. Like, I knew there was a meaning for some of the stories, but I couldn't get it.

Erin is an interesting character. I admire her for breaking away from her grandmother, but she's really stubborn and pride-filled. She complains about being poor, but then when someone offers to pay for her dinner, she huffs out her chest and stands her ground. Don't complain then, if you're not going to take it. Hunter calls her out on it a few times, being the poor little rich girl, and I was glad that someone did.

Hunter. Oh Hunter. You were not the perfect romance novel hero. It was difficult to see you trick our heroine over and over again. And why did she sleep with you again? And why did you guys constantly trick each other? YOU WEREN'T EVEN IN LOVE! THE TITLE WAS WRONG. Okay, I'm not sure if they even loved each other. That was another confusing aspect of Love Story. C'mon!!!!

Not only was it frustrating, maddening, and cute, it was also beautifully written. Echols knows how to do her job. Man, she writes great stories. I'm sure she was one of those kids in college who got picked on for writing romance, but she stuck with it, like Erin, and produced these awesome books. I'll definitely be reading another one of her novels. Any suggestions?

Well, that's it. Overall, Love Story was confusing, cute, a little annoying, fast, and it makes me really fear college in New York.

"And it's time you learned there's a big difference between your writing and your life. To do it right, your writing takes an incredible amount of work. Your life takes more. " 

-Love Story; Jennifer Echols