My Favorite Mistake by Chelsea M. Cameron

Title: My Favorite Mistake
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron
Release Date: September 9, 2012

Taylor Caldwell can't decide if she wants to kiss her new college roommate or punch him.

On the one hand, Hunter Zaccadelli is a handsome, blue-eyed bundle of charm. On the other, he's a tattooed, guitar-playing bundle of bad boy. Maybe that's why Taylor's afraid of falling in love with him, or anyone else. She doesn't want to get burned, and even though her other roommates adore him, she wants him gone before it's too late.

Hunter himself has been been burned before, but the fact that Taylor calls him out on his crap and has the sexiest laugh ever make him decide maybe love isn't a lost cause. They make a bet: if she can convince him she truly loves or hates him, he'll leave the apartment--and leave her alone. The problem is, the more time they spend together, the less she hates him, and the more she moves toward love.

But when the man who holds the key to Taylor's fear of giving up her heart resurfaces and threatens to wreck everything, she has to decide: trust Hunter with her greatest secret, or do everything in her power to win that bet and drive him away forever.

THOUGHTS:

A third into the book, I promptly realized that nothing about it so far was drawing me in and enticing me to tear through the pages. I shrugged, chalked it up to a number of reasons (oh, the story is just beginning; it's bound to get better, etc.), and continued reading. Next thing I know, I was finished reading, and it was then that I finally accepted the fact that I simply didn't enjoy My Favorite Mistake. At all.

It's not that the premise isn't intriguing or remotely interesting, because it is. I wouldn't have grabbed a copy otherwise, right? It's just that I felt like the novel left a lot to be desired - I got the feeling that the story as a whole didn't have enough substance and I never felt that the characters had depth. Certain scenes that I expected to be fleshed out weren't given enough space in the novel, while scenes that had no contribution to the overall plot lasted pages and pages. Also, though I sincerely tried my hardest to both like and understand her, Taylor was just plain horrible and was just so angry all the time. She thinks one way but does things another way, and she just makes such a huge deal of trivial things. I found her rude too, honestly. Certain parts of the novel teased that this large secret that she's keeping will allow the readers to make sense of why she acts the way she does, but even after the big reveal, I still couldn't condone her actions. I felt sorry for her, yes, but the way I felt for her pretty much couldn't be modified by then.

Furthermore, the first interaction between Taylor and Hunter made me raise my eyebrow - she punched him because he was being playful and flirty with her? Really? And nobody cared that she did so! Everyone was acting like Taylor punching a guy (who didn't even deserve to be punched, might I add) and lashing out was okay because Taylor was all 'ruined' because of her past. I don't know about you guys, but that didn't sit well with me. You DON'T punch a guy YOU JUST MET and who happens to be your new ROOMMATE. Who does that anyway!? And that was the readers' first introduction to Taylor. No wonder I didn't like her...

I didn't get the the whole bet thing either. What on earth was Hunter thinking when he proposed that? I know that he was definitely attracted to Taylor from the getgo, but the bet was just weird. Here it is - Taylor has the semester to prove to Hunter that she either loves him or hates him, and when she does, Hunter will move out. Here's the catch - Hunter will be the one to decide when that happens! Really, isn't that whacked? How is that fair, and why would any SANE person agree to that? Honestly, the 'bet' part pretty much felt forced to me. It was as if the author was trying to convince readers that Hunter was bad news... when he definitely isn't. He's sweet, charming, and fun from the very first page of the novel - I have no idea why the blurb lists him as a 'bad boy'. Trust me, he's not. As a matter of fact, he's even a bit of a pushover!

I couldn't fathom when the transition from lust to love happened too. Next thing I know, Hunter is telling Taylor's sister that things with Taylor are different. (I was a third into the novel here.) At that point, I felt like I missed something. Where was the milestone? You know, the 'moment' - the moment where it's so obvious that that was when everything changed? Hunter and Taylor barely talked about things that actually matter then - and suddenly he's convinced that she may be 'the one'? How? Why? Because she punched him? Because she supposedly 'calls him out for his bullshit'? She never did - she bantered with him when she felt like it. (I think that's different from calling out his bullshit but I can be wrong...) Anyway, the novel didn't have that moment, and as a result, I had a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea of Hunter and Taylor in a serious relationship. I just never felt that it was 'launched' properly, and I couldn't understand why he was in love with her.

This book and I didn't click in any way at all, simple as that. I'm clearly in the minority, however, so feel free to give this one a shot. You might like it better than I did.

Rating: 2 Stars