Image and blurb from Goodreads
Title: Waking Olivia
Author: Elizabeth O'Roark
Author: Elizabeth O'Roark
Publication Date: March 14th, 2016
"That girl isn't just
trouble of the not-a-team-player, not-a-reliable-runner variety. She's trouble
of the devious, manipulative, too-f***ing-hot-for-her-own good variety. She's
the kind of girl who causes trouble merely by existing, and then makes sure to
cause more.
And the last thing I need right now is more
trouble."
A failing farm.
His father’s debt.
And a struggling college track team.
Will Langstrom has too many responsibilities, and
the last thing he needs is Olivia Finnegan, a beautiful but troubled new
transfer student.
A smart mouth.
A strong right hook.
And a secret that could destroy her.
Olivia is her own worst enemy, with a past she
can’t seem to escape, and the last person she wants help from is a cocky track
coach she can never seem to please.
Refusing to be pushed away, Will is determined to
save her.
And determined to resist an attraction that could
destroy them both.
ARC via NetGalley
Thank you, Elizabeth O’Roark
So, look at what I wrote above and tell me if that alone doesn’t make
you want to read this book. Dude, you have hot (I mean, HOT) enemies becoming
lovers and forbidden romance between a college student and her track coach!
It’s pretty much everything you could ask for, right?
And I’ll tell you more... It’s well written!
Having said that, I have a confession to make. I probably saw this on
NetGalley months ago, but didn’t really pay attention to it. Shame on me, I
know. But then Cris @TinyObsessions read this and said the greatest things
about this book, and that made me curious. I’ve been reading a lot of good YA
and Adult contemporary romances lately, but it’d been a while since I read a NA
that made me all warm and fuzzy and all that.
Well, “Waking Olivia” made me warm, fuzzy and all that, because it’s SO
good. I mean, SO good.
The first thing I noticed was that I was going to fall for Olivia hard
and fast, because that girl is just my type of friend. She doesn’t try to be
nice just for the sake of it and she has a sharp and dark sense of humor that
had me laughing just a few pages in. I absolutely love when characters can pull
the “I don’t give a crap” attitude off without becoming unlikable – though some
might disagree, Olivia was never unlikable to me.
Rude?
Yes.
- Olivia after Erin asks her a million questions about why she beat up a boy in her last school:
"So why did you do it? He must have done something to you, right?" she asks. "Yes," I say, fixing a look on her along with the other listeners, who longer feign disinterest and are watching us avidly. "He asked me too many fucking questions."
Yes.
Unlikable?
Definitely not.
She’s not the easiest person to be around, and she has a lot of baggage,
but I felt much more like Erin (the girl who refused to not be
Olivia’s friend) than like Betsy (the one who did everything to make sure
Olivia understood she wasn’t welcome there), because I wanted to have Olivia
around.
At first, Will was more like Betsy, but he eventually became team
Olivia. Then what started as two people who couldn’t stand each other, but were
forced to work together, slowly and deliciously turned into two people who
couldn’t stay away from each other.
Is there anything more entertaining than watching enemies give in to
their attraction? Well, the answer is “probably no”, if you’re asking me. Especially
when these two people are as good at teasing and talking back as they are at
flirting and taking care of each other. Will and Olivia gave their relationship
all they had – be it when they were stuck on hate or when they finally accepted
their love, which made reading about them so interesting and entertaining.
Will, in all his attempt to be the responsible guy, was a true alpha
male. He was hot-tempered and protective of the people he loved. His
relationship with his mother helped show him under a different light a bit,
because it was quite clear how much he loved and respected her. He also had an
interesting dynamic with his younger brother, but nothing surpassed his relationship
with Olivia. All Will’s best moments were with her – from pushing all her
buttons to taking care of her when she had no one left.
Will’s love for Olivia made it almost impossible for me, as a reader,
not to fall for him, too. That was a man who was willing to risk everything for
the woman he loved. I don’t know about you, but that right there gets me every
single time.
I appreciated how the author chose a different way to show Olivia’s
trauma instead of going for the normal and easy “I get drunk and sleep with
strangers to forget my past” behavior. What happened to Olivia’s family was
truly horrible, but not something I haven’t read about in other books. The way
her mind handled it was the unique factor. It was one of the things that made
Olivia and this story stand out.
So why not five stars if I read this in one sitting, stayed up late and
loved the romance so much? SPOILERS ahead: because the whole thing with Will’s
girlfriend was unnecessary and way too close to cheating for my taste.
Honestly, I simply wish the author had cut Will’s girlfriend out of the story
completely. It didn’t need her. Will and Olivia already had a lot to overcome
in order to be together – their initial distrust and discomfort with each
other, Olivia’s nightmares, his position as her coach and what that meant to
him and to his family financially. There was a lot going on already. Having one
of your main characters cheat on his partner – no matter how annoying she was – should never be the answer to make things move along or to create tension
in a book, especially when you already have so many other things doing just
that.
Other than that, I’m positive this is going to be one of those books I’ll
still remember in the end of the year, and one I happily recommend to all fans
of NA romance.
*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.
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