Friday, November 15, 2013

Losing It ~ Cora Carmack review

Losing It
William Morrow
February 26, 2013
288 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon


Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She’d left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

It may be my fault for reading a book with the synopsis - and title - Losing It has and being me, but I still have a problem with Losing It. I was really torn on whether or not to review this one at all . . .

I'll start with the good: Losing It deals with a student/teacher relationship, one that also crosses that line from what's appropriate given those roles. The ages of the two characters work well here, so that, while it's still inappropriate it doesn't have the icky factor. There also isn't much 'authority' that comes into play, despite Bliss being the student, they stay closer to equals.

It's a short novel and a there isn't a lot that occurs at the college or in the class so there are not many chances for that student/teacher dynamic to really come into play. It allows the characters to stay on equal footing, but it also prevents some character development.

The guy is the perfect, sweet, book reading, sexy, British buy. Except, that's just it.  Pair him with Bliss the college senior who's terribly burdened by her maidenhood and desperate to lose it, going along with her best friend Kelsey, "Sex seemed simpler for Kelsey. She had the body of a Barbie and the sexually-charged brain of a teenage boy." (pg 5) to a bar to find a guy and, well, it's too much.

He needs to have some flaws. Bliss needs to not feel like her life is horrible because she's a virgin, while at the same time freaking out that she's not ready to have sex. If she's not, then fine. If her 'slutty' (as she says) best friend has sex and all her other friends do, then fine. She doesn't need to go out with the plan of having a one night stand.

Things worked for Bliss because Garrick was MrTooPerfect. It was hard not to imagine - when realizing how not ready for things Bliss was - how many ways things could have gone wrong and how much trouble she could have ended up in if Garrick had even been realistically ideal.

Given their student/teacher situation, her friends and the tension that was promised, I kept waiting for something to go wrong . . . but it didn't.

If you're looking for something simple and sweet with a perfect guy, Losing It should work. It think I was just expecting less perfect and more tension.


Rating: 5/10



Gabrielle Carolina of the Mod Podge Bookshelf did a much better job of saying some of the things I was trying to say - her review

You may also enjoy: Slammed by Colleen Hoover



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