Colin Preston is 19, at university in upstate New York and doing all the things students are meant to do. When he meets free-spirited Jasmine he is besotted. This is a story of his first real love, betrayal and friendship. Colin's other love is music, mostly from the 60s and 70s, and song titles and lyrics run throughout the story. For someone who knows their music better it would probably mean more to them, but a lot of it passed over my head. However the book is set in the mid 80s and contains plenty of nods to the fashion and culture of the time. Although I wasn't that old then a lot of the references took me back and made me smile.
The book is narrated by Colin, and while I had a lot of sympathy for him at times there were also points where he came over as needy, and he did seem guilty of using friend Liz. That made it hard for me to completely connect with the character. While the first person POV gives you a good insight into Colin I would love to have known more about Jasmine's background to have better understood her.
In addition to the love story Colin strikes up friendships with two very interesting people, Spanish lecturer Mrs Vesquez and reclusive student Chester. They work both as sounding boards for Colin and as a demonstration that while love can hurt and narrow your focus other people may have bigger things going on in their lives.
This is a good, light and easy summer read, and it is probably because I don't read a lot of romance and when I do like them with a comedy spin that I'm giving this 3* but if it's your thing you'll probably rate it more highly.
Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 3*
1 comment:
I'm a huge 60's-80's music fan so I might have to look for this - thanks for the review!
Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out
www.bookdout.wordpress.com
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