Now or Never - A.J. Bennett

I was intrigued by this book when I saw it for free on Amazon.  An adult romance with characters who have a dramatic past?  I love it.  Unfortunately, this book was not exactly what I had hoped for.

The premise behind this story was good.  A girl in a seriously abusive relationship is finally able to leave the situation and try to start her life over.  I hoped it would be an inspirational story about overcoming abuse and finding love after all of your self-worth had been taken away.  It was not.  While I was proud of Grayson for leaving her abusive situation, that was about the only thing I liked about her.

Once Grayson got out of the relationship and moved back with her family, she became a walking disaster.  She fell in love with the bad boy, while hooking up with tons of random men - even a married man.  She rarely used protection in her escapades.  She definitely needed to be smarter about things.  While I realize this is fiction and anything you want can happen in fiction, being that irresponsible in real life would likely lead to diseases and unplanned pregnancy.

I also hated her for falling back into the same kind of ridiculous relationship.  While our token "bad boy" was not physically abusive, he was emotionally harsh.  He would have his fling with her, then totally blow her off.  He appeared to never really be into her, and she kept falling at his feet like a sad little puppy.  After each time he would blow her off or be rude and condescending to her, she would crawl back and put up with it.  If she was a real person, I would scream at her to have some self-respect.  I also wanted to slap him for treating someone like they were nothing.

On a positive note, the story was pretty well-written.  I liked the author's language and writing style.  I've read reviews from people who did enjoy the book, so I hope my dislike doesn't stop others from reading it.  It just personally was not a good fit for me.