Review: Wait for You (Wait for You, #1)

Author: J. Lynn
Series: Wait for You, #1
Release date: September 3rd 2013
Publisher: William Morrow & Co.
Paperback, 336 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Some things are worth waiting for…

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing…

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet…

But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

Once again Jennifer Armentrout managed to take a fairly simple, run-of-the-mill plot and turn it into something entirely her own. Armentrout’s greatest strength is not originality of the plot, or even her characters, but rather the dialogues that flow very naturally. She is familiar with current slang and she uses it strategically, which gives her characters and extra layer of believability. Nothing they say ever seems forced, they are realistic and easily relatable.

Yes, Armentrout relies upon familiar tropes, but she turns them into a quick, enjoyable, very hot read, and sometimes, that’s really all I’m looking for. Desperate to run away from her deeply traumatic past, Avery chose a college thousands of miles away from home. She is extremely lonely, wary and mistrustful. When she (literally) runs into Cameron on her first day of class, she is determined not to let him anywhere near her. But Cam is gorgeous, sweet and above all determined. No matter how many times Avery tries to push him away, he just keeps coming back.

I honestly don’t know how someone with Avery’s past would actually behave, but the way Armentrout wrote it didn’t strike me as something out of a textbook, or worse yet, a self-help manual (Katie McGarry, I’m looking at you here!). She didn’t, perhaps, use Avery’s past to its full potential, but what she did seemed genuine to me.

All secondary characters were very well done, with the exception of Avery’s mother. Given how responsible she was for Avery’s state of mind, I would have liked to see her more nuanced, more tangible. She was no more than a constant negative presence in Avery’s life, when she could have easily been much more. With just a little more work on these details, Armentrout could have turned this enjoyable, compelling read into something even more wonderful and, more importantly, memorable.

I’m not sure which couple the sequel focuses on, but I have my hopes and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I’m right. Whoever it may be, Cam and Avery will surely be around and I will enjoy seeing them through someone else’s eyes.