Series: Jake #1
Author: Penelope Ward
Released: October 2013
Format: Amazon Borrow
Pages: 337 per Goodreads
Nina Kennedy was alive…but not living…until she met him.
Planes, trains, heights…you name it, Nina was afraid of it and led a sheltered life ruled by irrational fears and phobias. When she moves to Brooklyn for nursing school, that life is turned upside down, as she develops an intense but unwanted attraction to her gorgeous roommate, who’s pierced, tattooed and just happens to be the smartest person she’s ever met.
Behind Jake Green’s rough exterior and devilish smile, lies a heart of gold. He makes it his mission to change Nina’s outlook on life. When he agrees to tutor her, they forge a bet and the stakes are high as Jake forces Nina to face her demons. He just wasn’t expecting to fall hard for her in the process.
What Nina doesn’t realize, is that Jake has been living his own private hell. Once he drops a bombshell, will their love survive it?
Wow, I really have mixed feelings about this book. Jake Undone started out perfect, just the way I want a New Adult read to go. But by the end, I felt a bit differently.
I love when a New Adult book is full of intense attraction, flirtation, steamy hot sex, and anguish. Jake Undone delivered on that in spades. Nina and Jake were an ideal couple, for me. Well, at first.
See, Nina is phobic of small places. But she finds herself in NYC, and the roommate of uber-geek-hottie Jake. Great, I love this premise so far. He offers a deal to tutor her, and if she fails, she has to face her fears. Great again, I love that they are going to do some adrenalin inducing activities. Time goes on, the attraction goes. You really feel like these two are meant to be together. I mean it when I say this book had all the facets of New Adult that I love.
Then, about 75% of the way through, it changed. Ok, we have the big issue that comes up and tears our couple apart. I'm with it at that point. And then Jake continues to make mistakes, and Nina is closed off. Ok, I'm still on board. An old friend isn't completely honest, and some strangers really make the situation worse. It all sounds great.
The couple gets back together. We know they will, it's got to have a happy-ever-after, right? So that's when the book should have ended. Except it didn't. It went on. And usually, I wish for this. But in this case, I didn't. It seemed to me like an overload of information. Nina had something happen to her that totally changed her personality, and Jake was reduced to nothing, once again. But wait, it even moves past that to when they make back up. It just seemed like a lot of information that was needed, and wasn't cover in depth enough to feel like it should be there. The last quarter of this book would have been well suited to an in-series novella, and maybe explored a bit more. This book has been out a couple years, but I still don't want to give any spoilers. But in my opinion, after the couple reunites, the book should have ended.
Would I recommend this book? Sure, it was great up until then. Perfect, even. But I would hope you got to read it on a lend, or purchased it on sale like I did. I'd hate to see you as disappointed as I was with the ending. But all in all, still a solid good book, and I can't let the less than stellar ending ruin the rest of the story for me. I've read this author before, and I still love her writing, and still remain a big fan!
Jake Undone on Goodreads
Penelope Ward on Goodreads
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