Review: Catching Liam

Catching Liam
Good Girls Don't, Book 1

Author: Sophia Bleu
Pages: 378
Publisher: Sophia Bleu
Read: June 12- July 11, 2013
Source: egalley for blog tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours
Purchase Link: Amazon

Description from Goodreads:
Twenty-one year-old Jillian Nichols only has one rule when it comes to boys: catch and release. Boy-catching isn't just a game for Jillian and her friends, it's a lifestyle. After all, boys might be good for a dance or a drink and certainly a little under-cover action of the scandalous variety, but expect much else and you're bound for heart ache.

So when her best friends and fellow boy catchers start dropping like flies junior year, Jillian is determined to keep boys in her bedroom and out of her heart. Until she meets Liam McAvoy, the kind of guy that sticks around to make waffles and who can't—or perhaps won't—take a hint.

Study abroad student Liam doesn't want to be another notch on Jillian's bedpost. Actually he has much more interesting ideas for Jillian and her bedposts, but his student visa's set expiration date means he can't promise her forever. That doesn't mean he's going to walk away from the challenge of discovering why Jillian is hell-bent at keeping people at a distance.

Before long, neither is sure who is catching who—or if they're playing for keeps. Jillian knows one thing though: falling in love will not only break the only rule of boy-catching, it could also break her heart.

First Sentence: "Wednesday was boy catching night."

Review:

Yes, yes, the person who just posted a couple weeks ago about how she's still not on board with new adult just read another one. And liked it too. Though most of the plots make me shudder for humanity, Catching Liam sounded like a sex positive read that would be full of women making their own choices, and not letting men boss them around. Catching Liam didn't wow me, but it was precisely what I wanted: something funny, sexy, and embracing of sexuality.

To start with, I have to say that my rating might have been just the slightest bit higher if not for an odd coincidence. I happened to start Catching Liam right after I finished By Referral Only by Lyla Payne, which have very similar main characters, down to the accent on the hero. Since they came out within a couple of weeks of each other, it's safe to say that this is just a crazy case of happenstance, but it did take some of the oomph out of Catching Liam for me.

Jillian loves sex and hates relationships. Boys are for one night stands, to be caught and immediately released. Repeated encounters just lead to troubling things like feelings and having to let someone else inside your walls. Thus, Jillian is displeased when she wakes up one morning to find her, admittedly hot, one night stand in her kitchen making waffles. Naked. Well, she's mostly displeased. She's also a bit tempted to double dip the chip, even though that goes against her rules. Obviously, though, Liam of the Scottish brogue and six pack abs and waffle-making skills is a force to be reckoned with.

As expected, Jillian ends up taking a chance on Liam. She has some obvious issues of her own, reasons why she doesn't want a boyfriend. The pills she takes for one and her insanely controlling mother, Tara, for another. Bleu successfully adds depth to the story with these issues. Jillian's problem, especially, is well-handled.

The romance follows pretty standard lines, but is generally non-annoying. Liam and Jillian do seem to get along quite well, even if I didn't feel a special spark of OMG THEY MUST BE TOGETHER FOREVERS. Plus, Liam is legit a nice guy, even if he gives the worst nicknames (chicken) and has some bad plans for how to be in a relationship (now that we're a couple, let's not have sex anymore).

But, hey, I enjoy romances and the only reason I don't really read them much anymore is that I was so tired of the innocent female desperate for a man taming the wild rake with her weeping lady parts. I'm totally up for stories like Catching Liam where women love sex, have sex on their own terms, and are unashamed of it, even when their insanely bitchy mothers try to make them feel bad about themselves.

Jillian's relationship with Tara's probably where Catching Liam fell flattest for me. The relationship dynamics jump around suddenly and Tara just really doesn't make any sense. Mostly, she's a monster bitch from hell, but occasionally she morphs into a sweet, loving mother. The only way her character arc makes sense to me is if she's the same Tara from The United States of Tara, but I really doubt that.

What I think I actually enjoyed most was the humor of Catching Liam. There were a few jokes that actually made me chuckle out loud. They're silly and a bit naughty, and a lot of fun. I love when books can make me laugh, so that's a huge plus. Most of the attempts at inside jokes between the three best friends (Jillian, Cassie, and Jess) felt flat and forced, but the moments that actually happened in the story were great.

Catching Liam is a light, funny new adult story with a kind hero and a confident heroine who knows what she wants. The advance copy I read had some fairly serious grammatical errors, but I'm hoping the finished copy went through more editing, just like the cover was improved. I'm on the fence about reading the next book in the series, which will follow Jillian's friend Jess in a professor-student romance. I probably will read it, but only time will tell.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote:

"'I don't do relationships,' I said slowly, trying to get the words right. 'If anyone fucks this up, it's going to be me.'
     'That's the nice thing about relationships,' Liam said.
     'What?'
     'There's two people involved. If you fuck up, I'll be around to help you back on your feet.'"