Review: I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre

I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre

(2B Trilogy #1)

August 26, 2014

352 pages

Genre: New Adult Contemporary 18+

Contains: explicit sex, language

Source: eARC for Honest review

Nadia Conrad has big dreams, and she's determined to make them come true—for her parents' sake as well as her own. But between maintaining her college scholarship and working at the local day care to support herself, she barely has time to think, let alone date. Then she moves into a new apartment and meets the taciturn yet irresistible guy in 1B….

Daniel Tyler has grown up too fast. Becoming a single dad at twenty turned his life upside down—and brought him heartache he can't risk again. Now, as he raises his four-year-old son while balancing a full-time construction management job and night classes, a social life is out of the question. The last thing he wants is for four noisy students to move into the apartment upstairs. But one night, Nadia's and Ty's paths cross, and soon they can't stay away from each other.

The timing is all wrong—but love happens when it happens. And you can't know what you truly need until you stand to lose it.

I wish I could say that I liked this one, but I can't. I'm giving it two stars to represent the fact that I liked the two main characters. I also liked Sam, Ty's son, but I have to lump him with the other two. Nadia, Ty, and Sam were endearing and likable, even when they were making mistakes. If I just focus on their story, it is quite sweet. If only liking the characters would have been enough for me to like this book.

What didn't work for me, for one thing, was that this book was simply boring. It's 352 pages of walking step-by-step through what felt like each day of Nadia's life. I skimmed a lot. I didn't need to know every nuance of her daily life, and then have it repeated, and then see her hang with her roommates, and then have that repeated. By the time we got to the sex scenes, I was bored and skimming through them, too.

Which also means I didn't love the writing style of this one. It just did not grab me. There was just something about the narrative that read boring and predictable and simple. Also, I don't generally mind insta-love, but Nadia's insta-feelings without much basis made me cringe. Now I will say that I've read the first book of Aguirre's Razorland series and really liked it. So it isn't that I don't like this author. I just think perhaps her YA Dystopian style reads better for me.

Additionally, this book felt like a lot of set up for the entire trilogy. Instead of just getting a glimpse of Nadia's roommates and their potential future stories, we get a ton of info on them. There was too much time spent setting them up, when I really wanted to focus mainly on Nadia and Ty. It was disruptive to the flow of the story. It also made those other characters less appealing.

Overall, I liked the concept of this story and its main characters. Unfortunately, the execution just didn't work for me. Perhaps you'll have better luck with it than I did.

2 STARS