Kira

Twenty-one-year old Shandi is on her way to start a new life. She's loaded up her tiny VW bug with all her possessions, her briliant three-year-old son, and her best friend Walcott and they are headed to the big city where she will have the opportunity to attend college. Natty (short for Nathan) gets car sick on the way, so they pull over to clean up at a gas station, where Shandi and Natty promptly become victims of an armed robbery. 

William-- tall, blonde, handsome William-- is also shopping in the Circle K and also finds himself facedown on the cold linoleum while a kid with a gun screams and hollers and demands money nobody has. Though the robbery is short in duration, it leaves lasting marks on all involved and draws them all together, for better or worse. 

This is such a hard book to review, mostly because I can't put my finger on whether I enjoyed it or not. The description lures you into expecting a love story, and it's so perfectly named because itis a love story... just, someone else's love story. You will not know until the very end whose love story you are reading, who you are supposed to root for, who will end up with whom. That is actually what I loved most about this book. The fact that it kept me on my toes and I had no idea where it was going or what it was really about. 

William is a complicated hero, and I won't spoil it by telling you what exactly that means because you should find out for yourself, but he was definitely different from any hero I have read up till now. There was no instalove. There were no cheesy confessions of unrealistic adoration within moments of meeting eachother. There was just the story of what happened to William and Shandi after the robbery, and then flashbacks to what came before, helping us to piece together the bigger picture and eventually discover exactly what story we are reading. Also, there were some really sweet moments between William and Natty... and Shandi and William... and Shandi and Walcott... and William and his best friend Paula... and flashbacks to William chasing after and falling for his first love Bridgett... did I mention that this is someone else's love story? But I'm not telling whose. 

So if I liked it, why just the three stars? Well, quite simply, this book was somewhat forgettable. I enjoyed it while reading it and had no trouble slipping into the story and wanting to know what happened next, but I never fully connected with the characters and once I was finished, I haven't really thought about it again. I save my four and five star ratings for books that I liked enough to recommend to friends and/or re-read myself, so I can't rate this one higher; but, if you're already a fan of Joshilyn Jackson, or just looking for a good read that doesn't necessarily fall into any clear genre brackets and will keep you guessing till the end, then yes, give this one a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.