Bows & Bullets Book Blog

Camryn Bennet is tired of the monotony of her life. She watched her parents’ marriage fail, watching years of two people who used to love each other pretend to be satisfied with how things have turned out. After a bad night out in a club with friends, she boards a cross-country bus going to Idaho, for no apparent reason, just because she must get away. On this bus, she meets Andrew Parrish. She is immediately intrigued by him, but after her first loves tragic death, she vowed to never failfall in love again and she won’t get close to Andrew because she can tell he would be able to push her off that cliff. How long can she fight her attraction to him?

Wow, just fucking wow. My mind has been blown in the worst way. I didn’t think anything this terrible could not only because published, but adored by so many people. Maybe I missed something? I disliked this novel almost immediately and though I patiently waded through the entire novel, I was never rewarded with an improvement. I can already warn you, if you liked this book or don’t like overly rant-y reviews (seriously, why do you follow me, if not for the overly rant-y reviews?!?!?), then you had best stop here. I did not enjoy this and will spell out why below, in graphic detail. You have been warned!


First off, Camryn is annoying and immature and completely self-centered. This is one of the few heroines where I can honestly say that Bella Swan had more personality.
Yeah, it was that bad. At the beginning she lets her BFF, who by the way doesn’t have many BFF-y qualities push her into doing things she isn’t comfortable with and then when said BFF’s boyfriend hits on her, BFF goes ballistic and choosing boyfriend over Camryn, which sends her into a downward spiral leading to her boarding the fateful bus to nowhere. As the novel progresses, her personality regresses further. She’s also a big hypocrite. Claiming fast food and sodas are disgusting and vomit inducing, which is a fine opinion to have, but has no problem scarfing down food from a Waffle House, a chain notorious for its overly greasy food and drinking sweet tea, which is WAY fucking worse than any soda. It’s also pretty well established that she has only been employed once, for about a week, before running off because “it just wasn’t for her” yet she has no problem spending money. Seriously? I vaguely recall her mentioning that her dad was relatively well off, but you should still show some remorse or though before charging buttloads of necessary things on daddy’s credit card. I felt the need to scream “grow the fuck up” on more than one occasion. If you are going to trek cross country for no apparent reason, at least do so with your own money. If you have no money, then the wanderlust is just going to have to wait. I’m so sick of novels where the heroines parents are rich and that allows her/him the freedom to just blow money like it’s grows on damn trees. Newsflash, it doesn’t work that way.

Then there was Andrew….oh Andrew. I initially liked him just a little. He was hot and snarky and that’s always a good combination, but he was too secretive, not to mention the aggression. I’m sorry, but I don’t see an overly muscled guy who wants to pound in the face of every guy who so much as speaks to me as attractive. I see that as serious trust issues and possibly a hormone imbalance.

Seriously, stop taking the steroids, stay away from gamma radiation, and calm the fuck down. I can sort of see where the attraction is, but I found him to be too much. Not to mention that whole “if you were to let me fuck you, you’d have to let me own you” line. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!?!?!? Are you a dom looking for a sub? Is this 1801 and all women are legally the property of their husbands or fathers? Oh hell no! Fuck that shit. Even though I knew Cam was a moron, I was still screaming at her to get far the fuck away when he spouted that line.

Then there was how the entire plot felt like bullshit. The entire concept for Cam is she is leaving behind her normal life because she can’t understand how people live their whole lives doing the same thing day after day, which is an understandable thing. Life does get monotonous and we all need a break, fine. But what her trip really felt like was her running away. Away from her past with Ian, away from her dead-beat brother and father, away from the shit with Natalie, all of it. Then, the second half was nothing but sex, sex, and more sex. I’m fine with sex, but come on! There should be more to it than that. And don’t even get me started on the bullshit ending! about 50 or so pages before the end, we discover that dear Andrew has a brain tumor that he has basically been ignoring for the last eight months and now the doctors say without surgery he is going to die and even with it, the chances are slim to none. But someone he miraculously makes it through, with no side effects besides a major amount of bed rest.




Basically, that is my long winded way of saying that this definitely wasn’t my kind of novel. I guess firsts are bound t o happen and this is the first new adult that I have truly despised. I hate that I’ve found one that I’ve hated. This sounded so good and I really wanted to love it. I just didn’t. I hope everyone else out there has better luck than me, but just remember that I warned you.

****Thank you to Hachette Book Group, Grand Central Publishing, and Forever for providing me with an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review****