"Easy" by Tammara Webber

Release Date: May 25, 2012
Publisher: Self-Published (Now Penguin)
Pages: 304

From Goodreads: "A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy."

Recently when on a contemporary kick I picked up this book thinking that it sounded like exactly what I was looking for- hearing nothing about good things about it and learning that Penguin recently acquired the rights for it didn't hurt. While overall I did quite enjoy each of the individual elements of the novel, I must admit that I didn't enjoy perhaps the most important- the romance aspect.

One of the individual elements that I enjoyed were the characters- Lucas is basically YA/new adult boy incarnate- in being an incarnate character one might assume him to be "god-like" or "marble statue-ish" (as seems the trend in these genres of books) but he isn't in the slightest. He's sweet and caring to the max, he's protective (without being overbearing or possessive), he's intelligent, he's humble, he's flawed, and a million others things- all characteristics which accumulate in him being unarguably real. Jacqueline was also an enjoyable character- though fairly obtuse at times (I don't know why it took her so long to draw the connection between two characters- I had guessed it almost as soon as the evidence was produced). My favourite part about her was that she actually grew throughout the novel- becoming not only more independent, but ballsier, as the story progressed.

That being said, as mentioned, I wasn't a huge fan of the romance. Primarily, I found it to be extremely forced. Furthermore, as anyone will tell you, I am a "kissing" person- I LOVE love in books- however whenever I read the sexy-times scenes between Lucas and Jacqueline I couldn't help but burst out into laughter- it felt like a dentist or something of that nature was describing the make-out scenes with all of the talk of teeth, palates, bony parts of mouths, etc.

All in all, this was an extremely quick read and one that I would recommend looking for a deeper older YA/ new adult novel (though do make note that this deals with issues that some may have difficulties with- rape, attempted rape, violence, etc.). I will be checking out Tammara's other previously published novels and I look forward to the sequel to this novel (whether it be about Jacqueline and Lucas or a secondary character)!

Rating: 3/5