Bailey “Mink” Rydell has met the boy of her dreams. They share a love of films and talk all day – Alex is perfect. Well, apart from the fact that they’ve never actually met . . . and neither of them knows the other’s real name.
When Bailey moves to sunny California to live with her dad, who happens to live in the same town as Alex, she decides to track him down. But finding someone based on online conversations alone proves harder than Bailey thought, and with her irritating but charismatic (and potentially attractive?) colleague Porter Roth distracting her at every turn, will she ever get to meet the mysterious Alex?
This was a mixed one for me. I was looking forward to it after loving Jenn's previous YA offering but this didn't quite do it for me.
Starting on the positive. I loved the setting and I loved the surfing aspect of the book. Surfing books always do it for me. Hot boys in wetsuits.... need I say more. This book captured that vibe perfectly. I wish there had been more included in the book.
I adored Porter. Porter is a perfect YA male lead in his flawed gorgeousness and the way in which he's really sweet and thoughtful as well as having that cheeky edge. I loved seeing the relationship between him and Bailey develop over the course of the book.
However for me I think this book didn't click because of Bailey. I just didn't like her at all. I thought she was quite snobby and I detested it every time she used the term 'artful dodger' when refering to herself. She was a perfect example of a self entitled middle class girl who thought she was hard done by all the time but actually wasn't. It's a real shame because I wanted to like her because how often do you meet a YA character who is a history geek?
I also found the book to be quite predictable. I guessed the resolution from page one which I very rarely do when reading books. The story itself was really really slow going and it didn't pick up and get interesting for me until the last third.
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