Stay with Me

 10/13/23

I'm trying a different Jennifer Armentrout book. Well, I've been listening to this book more than reading it. It is something to do while playing mindless games. But I've learned something about myself going between the two different books by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I don't like overly descriptive books. I like books that pretty much get to the point. I was thinking that was why I couldn't get into Don't Look Back. It was too descriptive on the whole situation. Stay with Me is more to the point. It is interesting that two different books from the same author have completely different writing styles. Anyways the book I'm listening to now is about our main girl named Calla who had her life in order and planned out until she finds out that her mother had completely cleaned her out. Putting all of her plans completely off track. Forced to go back to her hometown to find her mother, Calla learned that finding her mother isn't going to be easy. Turns out her mother has been hanging out with the wrong crowd and ran off. No where to be found. Now Calla is forced to figure out what to do to to get her life back in order. Meaning she is stuck in her hometown until she got at least some of the money she needed in order to at least finish school. I'm curious on how Calla is going to work out her finances while also trying to figure out how to clean up the mess her mother had created. 

10/17/23

I would be lying if I said that this book didn't cause me some restless nights because it did. The mess that Calla's mom had put her in left me wondering what she was going to do about it. Also Calla did a lot of growing thanks to Jax. She had a lot to learn to overcome her insecurities and to learn that her scars never made her ugly. The looks she was getting from people were mostly pity and not disgust like she thought. Yeah there were some real pieces of work that found her scars a shame and ugly, but those people aren't deserving to be a part of Calla's life. I think I liked this book because of Calla's character development. This book felt like it was so much deeper than a romance. We have have a girl who had a rough childhood after a fire broke out in her home because she lost some people very close to her. Meaning her dad left and pretty much wrote her off while her mom went into the world of drugs. Even though Calla wanted to get away from her crappy life, she realized that she also neglected those that really did care for her. Later in the book, after almost dying, Calla learns that her mom's mess wasn't even supposed to be Calla's mess. It was taken care of and now she was safe to do whatever she wanted. Like go back to school and fall madly in love with Jax. Anyways, I like how this book had so much more meaning to it than the typical romance. The book is about a girl who felt like she didn't deserve everything in the world because of her background and scars. Then she grows up and realizes that she does. This book gets four out of five stars from me.