One Night Stand: Taking Chances by Molly McAdams

KINDLE

Taking Chances by Molly McAdams
Mature YA
2012-09-01 (Molly McAdams)

Rating: D
Heat: Warm

Heroine: Harper – Student, Virgin 
Hero: Chase – Artist, Bad Boy 
Hero: Brandon – Fighter, Too Forgiving 
Setting: California, USA

Synopsis:

Eighteen year old Harper has grown up under her career Marine of a father's thumb. Ready to live life her own way and experience things she's only ever heard of from the jarheads in her father's unit; she's on her way to college at San Diego State University.

Thanks to her new roommate, Harper is introduced to a world of parties, gorgeous guys, family and emotions. Some she wasn't expecting yet, and others she never knew she was missing.

She finds herself being torn in two as she quickly falls in love with her boyfriend Brandon, and her roommate's brother Chase. Covered in tattoos, known for fighting in the Underground and ridiculously muscled...they're exactly what she was always warned to stay away from, but just what she needs. Despite their dangerous looks and histories, both adore and would do anything for Harper, including stepping back if it means she's happy.

Her first year away is turning out to be near perfect, but one weekend of giving in to heated passion will change everything.

Review:

Harper grew up an only child living with her father, who is a Marine. He's a stoic man who never shows his love to his daughter, barely talks to her, and has asked her to call him "Sir." She can't wait to go off to college to live her life. She chooses a college in San Diego, CA where she will be living with Breanna, her dorm roommate and immediate best friend.

The very first night, Breanna takes Harper to a party where she meets Chase, Breanna’s brother. Harper is immediately attracted to his surfer boy good looks and tattoos. But she finds out right away that he’s got a bad reputation for being a player. She then decides it would be best to stay away from him.

Then, she meets Brandon, Chase’s roommate, at lunch one day. Brandon is good looking with a shaved head, tattoos, and fights in underground MMA matches. There is instant attraction between these two. Brandon and Chase are total opposites. Brandon is sweet and a gentleman to Harper from the moment they meet. Chase on the other hand, is stand-offish and gives Harper a hard time by nicknaming her PG and Princess. He knows he’s not good for her, so he stays away from her which made it easier for Harper to decide to date Brandon instead of Chase. But, even though she is dating Brandon, she can’t stop thinking about Chase and her attraction towards him continues to grow. AND THE DRAMA BEGINS.

***WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD***

Harper. I never understood what was so special with this girl. Was it her virgin status? Or the fact that she is naive and inexperienced? She never came across as strong or independent. More than anything, I thought she was self-absorbed and stupid. Her inner monologue over her feelings for both these guys was ridiculous. How can you say you love someone and want to spend the rest of your life with him and then turn around and cheat on him? For an inexperienced virgin, she sure did play these guys like a pro. It drove me crazy the way everyone coddled this girl and was so forgiving for all her many mistakes. Poor Harper and all her daddy issues! Ugh, what a load of crap.

Chase. I feel like I missed something in the story. I never understood what he saw in Harper. She was snippy with him right from the beginning. Was it the “hard to get syndrome” that he was so attracted to? She did play the victim quite often. Was that it? But, whether I understood this attraction towards her or not, he wanted her and he reformed his bad boy ways for her. With their growing attraction towards one another, they could no longer resist each other and end up sleeping together. Because of this one night together, they must both face the consequences. This part of the story really bothered me. Chase asks her to choose who she wants to be with. In her head, the obvious person would be Brandon because he is the good guy who would never leave her. Lies, lies, and more lies. But when something unexpected happens and Harper can no longer keep her cheating ways a secret from Brandon, Harper breaks up with Brandon and is suddenly in a relationship with Chase. By this time, my head hurt.

Brandon. I liked Brandon right away. I thought the tattoos, the fighting, the sexy dimple, were all extremely hot. I was also very attracted to his sweet and generous personality. I liked that he didn’t play games. Unfortunately, his kind ways and honesty were all taken advantage of by Harper. I loathed the fact that he would’ve done anything for this girl! Once again, I don’t understand the attraction towards Harper. There was nothing and I mean NOTHING special about her! What baffled me the most is why would Brandon still want to be with Harper after she cheats on him with Chase, especially since she gave her virginity to Chase AFTER she tells Brandon she's not ready? And all this time she keeps saying she can see herself spending the rest of her life with Brandon. My head not only hurts at this point but I have whiplash from the back and forth ridiculousness. When Harper finally gets the chance to explain to Brandon why she cheated on him, her reasons made me laugh - they were so annoyingly stupid. Just admit it sister, YOU ARE SELFISH. I rooted for Brandon the whole time. But, by the second half of the book, I couldn’t but help but think of him as Harper’s door mat.

I had issues with Breanna and Chase’s family. How they reacted to the unforeseen incident felt extremely unrealistic. Two months after the incident, they were pushing Harper into someone else’s arms. The incident felt down-played and unimportant. I know what it feels like for something like that to happen and that’s NOT how people act! It just felt like the author didn't know what to do with the story, so she threw that in there.

The last 60% of the book was boring and lagged quite a bit. It felt like one great big epilogue. Did the author really have to wrap up everyone's life into a nice and tidy bow? Every character got closure and it lasted way too long. It was so uninteresting that at least a 100 pages could’ve been cut out. I ended up skipping some chapters to get to the end and still didn’t feel like I missed anything because there actually was an epilogue that pretty much explained everything all over again. *headdesk*

I really enjoy mature young adult stories and that's why I chose to read this book. I liked the description and thought that if it was anything like Beautiful Disaster and Thoughtless that I would like it. As you can tell, this story did not work for me. I get it. People cheat and it’s possible to fall in love with two people at the same time. I actually really like emotional and complex love triangles. But, this story felt so far-fetched and completely unrealistic that I could not connect with the characters on any level. Not to mention, the heroine was completely shallow and unlikeable.

My final thought when I finished this book…if I had to hear "I love you so much" one more time, I was going put my Kindle through a wall!

 

Thoughts While Reading:

34.0% - "I'm still trying to decide if I like this book...but I'm having a hard time putting it down. Hmm."
45.0%  - "Wow, Harper...you really screwed up now sista!"