[Blog Tour: Review] Veer by Alyssa Rose Ivy

 

Title: Veer
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy
Release Date: November 9, 2012

Only when you let go can you learn to live.

Between the death of her mother and pushing through law school without her best friend, it's been a tough year for Becca. Needing a break from Boston, she moves to a tiny coastal North Carolina town for a relaxing summer. After bumping heads repeatedly with a local cop, she realizes her summer will be anything but quiet.

Three years after a career ending injury ruins his chance to play Major League Baseball, Gavin has a distrust of northerners and lately girls in general. He wants nothing to do with a girl who is only in town for the summer.

When the two give in to their impossible attraction, they realize that they may just have found the key to freeing themselves from the ghosts of their pasts.

THOUGHTS:

Veer, the second book in the Clayton Falls series, tells the story of Gavin (the cop who fell in love with Molly in the first book) and Becca (Molly's friend from law school) this time around. While it really isn't necessary to read Derailed, the previous book in the series, I would recommend that you read just so you have some background on the town and all the characters. Set a year after the happenings of Derailed, Veer not only allows us to get to know more about Gavin and Becca, we also get to check up on the main characters we have come to love from the previous book.

What I loved most about this book is how realistic it was - the plot is concise and straight to the point with no room for irrelevant scenes in the novel. It isn't overwrought with overdone drama and nothing ias exaggerated - as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that there are a lot people out there who would be able to relate to both Gavin and Becca and as well as their story. I also love that Veer spotlighted enough attention on the main characters - there are novels wherein the secondary characters tend to hijack the plot but that simply isn't the case for Veer - this truly is Gavin and Becca's story through and through.

Just like Molly a year ago, Becca escapes to Clayton Falls after she discovers that her life is falling apart. Becca is a character that readers will have no problem relating to - there comes a time in every person's life when he or she feels lost, after all. Alternatively, I never quite liked Gavin from the first book. I found it weird that he just fell hard for Molly for no reason whatsoever, but I'm happy to say that I came to like his character this time around. Ivy explored enough of his past to explain just why he acts the way he does, and I also enjoyed that we were privy to his thoughts and feelings through his POV. 

However, I did feel like Gavin's character was a bit inconsistent at times though. As I previously mentioned, Gavin fell in love with Molly, but Veer paints him as someone who is very wary of girls. I intially deduced this certain wariness due to Molly's rejection of Gavin's love, but suddenly, we find out that the reason why he was so wary of girls - which of course ultimately includes Becca - is because of how an ex-girlfriend (a Northerner) treated him three years ago, years before he moved to Clayton Falls. This part really cofused me. If Gavin does indeed have a grudge against girls because of his ex, then why on earth did he fall in love with Molly so easily a year ago? Despite the whole 'Northerner' issue (Gavin's ex was a Northerner, same as Becca, hence his aloofness towards Becca), this whole plotline just didn't make sense and have that much substance for me.

I did enjoy reading about Becca and Gavin's relationship. Nothing felt forced - the it's pretty obvious to me that the two are meant for each other, and I love how they slowly but surely made things work out for the two of them. All in all, Veer is an easy read and I can't wait for the next installment in this series. The alternating POVs was a nice touch, and I really got to know both main characters because of it.

Rating: 3.5 Stars