Holy WOW! Was this book real? Because it was just too good! I was in love from the first page. I was half-way through the book and so darn happy when I realized there was so much more book left to read and SOMETHING bad had to happen. I almost stopped reading because I wanted everything to just stay in that magical world of Jase/Samantha. But I kept reading and their world got shattered... and I'm glad that I kept reading. This book was a great way to start out 2013 for me!!

Full review to come soon @:
http://pinkpolkadotbookblog.blogspot.com ( )

I don't remember when or why I first read this book. With a vague title and a weird cover, the only reason I can think of is "I was bored and swiped it off the shelf, determined to check out a few books I ordinarily wouldn't". I did that until my mid-twenties. Sometimes it was great. I never knew how it'd go and I was glad I'd done it in the first place. Now, I saw this on my goodreads feed and thought, "Bland--oh, that book! I'm curious to check it out again now that I'm a more critical reader with more life experience." Second-time reads tend to shift my opinion wildly, too. This time stayed true to that. I remembered this as a boring attempt at romance that was more a character study, until a massive plot twist. Such descriptions still stand, but there's things I'd forgotten. Like how a much better description is, "This is a book about babysitting her boyfriend's siblings while she and her boyfriend are unable to stop pawing at each other, and they both are annoyed when the other kids interrupt them constantly." I mean, there's a best friend in there somewhere but she's just kinda there. There's a mom and a sister, but the sister had no real reason to be in the book. Each character is a cardboard cut-out or stereotype from their first introduction. There's no depth to anyone at -all- until the plot twist, and even then, it's only hinted at. The dialogue is terrible. The entire first half of the book needed to be cut down to five pages or less. Themes and some sentences of it could have easily been weaved through the second half of the book, making it stronger and more readable as a whole.

Reasons for some of the biggest themes in the book are never given at all, despite the much-needed depth it would have offered. -Why- do the Garretts have eight kids? They have both boys and girls, so it wasn't, "We were trying until we got" thing. There's no "a big family is important to us" there's no "I grew up wanting lots of kids for x reason." Nothing. And yet the Garretts are so frustrated and worn down by remarks they receive from strangers, which are all the reader is exposed to! I couldn't sympathize with the Garretts because information was being withheld from me! All it took was a few sentences, maybe a paragraph, and I would have been right there with them. That was not given to me so no, I don't feel sorry for the Garretts. IRL, I never ask. I tend to figure, "Lots of kids is important to them," because I know families like that. My dad's family is larger than most--he has four sisters and they all had multiple kids--and it's evident that families are to be celebrated, with them. Each wanted six to twelve kids, and many wound up with three on average. So IRL it's definitely a thing, but the book denies me that. I know several step-families with six or seven kids, and money is a major issue, as is trying to have everyone get along. None of this is in the book. The kids just yell and scream a lot, and it's Babysitter To The Rescue, since their -own mother- can't seem to handle them. At least when the plot twist shows up, they start behaving more like kids whose babysitter is overwhelmed. Seriously, a teenager handling eight kids effortlessly, and having time to pounce on her boyfriend? UNREALISTIC EVEN FOR ADULTS.

The parents...stopped health insurance for the parents because their kids were getting too expensive. My eyes widened in dismay. The book doesn't let me sympathize with them at all! I was just expected to accept this, and oh, how neatly it factored into the damn drama. College will not be a reality for some of the kids because eight kids are expensive. This--because NO REASON is given for so many kids, really just does come off as poor planning. I tried so hard not to judge. Mrs Garrett sighs to herself when Patty's first word is boob, and her second is poop.
(flatly) Alison Bechdel's comic book characters Toni and Clarice had a son, Raffi, whose first word was "Fucks." Author, you--fail.

The enormous plot twist of this book doesn't happen until chapter thirty-eight. I was being -generous- indeed when I said the entire first half of the book needed to be cut down to five pages or less. Chapter thirty-eight! So, the previous seventy percent of the book was actually too-long backstory and this was -the real- plot. Lovely. I thought the plot showing up would change things. It didn't. The characters largely stayed the same. It was so annoying. Things just...happened to the characters and no one seemed to take any actions unless it was something to nudge the plot along. I was relieved when the book ended, even if it was on an incredibly stupid note. ( )

The first page. And this feels like a hurricane.
I'm so totally reading!

AFTER-READ:
Wonderful! I absolutely loved it. Still grinning.
The shopping trip conversation is laugh-worthy.

A wonderfully real story. Beautiful.
Please spare some time for this treat.

Jase Garrett. What a guy! *sigh*
And I'm glad for Tim. ( )

Really enjoyed this. Characters were great. Not quite as good as Sarah Dessen's books, but very, very close. ( )

I loved this book so much! ( )