Title: EasyAuthor: Tammara Webber
Genre: Contemporary YA, New Adult
Publisher: Tammara Webber
Release date: May 25, 2012
Source: Bought for my kindle
Summary: When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she’s single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.
Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex’s frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night–but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.
When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he’s hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.
Couple things to note about EASY by Tammara Webber. One, she went ahead and published her own book. Two, her book is about some college kids dealing with some drama, making them that awesome “new adult” age, giving them problems that are a little deeper, and freedom that is a little wider. Three, EASY is a fantastic contemporary novel that I polished off in one, swoony day. Seriously, guys. EASY is sexy, emotional, dramatic, and really, REALLY good.
So I know that you might see the title of this book and look at the cover and think you have an idea what the book is about. I feel like the word “easy” plastered on a cover where two young people are on the verge of making out (enough of this, please, btw) can have connotations. And yes, there is sex in EASY, and it’s pretty freaking legit. But the root of the drama in EASY is much deeper than the sex, and the connection between Jacqueline and Lucas is nowhere near that superficial.
Jacqueline, a promising cellist in her own right, has followed her brown-nosing, asshat high school boyfriend to college. This makes me cringey, but if it gets Jacqueline within 50 feet of Lucas, I guess I can deal. So anyway, she follows her boyfriend to college, where he promptly dumps her to sow his wild oats while he’s young, because when he grows up and becomes a lawyer/politician, he doesn’t want to feel any urges, or have any cheating skeletons in his closet. JERKFACE. Heartbroken, Jacqueline falls majorly behind in her classes. In order to help salvage her GPA, her economics professor sets her up with this tutor, Landon, who through several twists of fate, etc., she only corresponds with via email. But there is flirting. Of course, distracting Jacqueline from all of this is something that happens to her not long after the bf dumps her: she’s at a frat party with her roomie and bff, and she is attacked by an acquaintance in the parking lot. Lucas–mysterious, hot, quiet, intense Lucas–is there to send the guy packing. But not before he scares the shizz out of Jacqueline. Drama and sexytimes and confused identities follow.
Friends, EASY is a really emotionally intense story of how two young people with issues of their own find a way to be together. I really liked Jacqueline. She’s smart but not perfect, and she’s confused by her feelings for Lucas and Landon in a way that real life girls would be. She’s strong, too, and learns how to be stronger. I was really impressed with her and her growth. Lucas is so steamy, friends, and not really just because he’s hot. He’s got great instincts about people, and when he cares about someone, he can’t seem to stop himself from wanting to protect them and make them feel safe and loved and tingly all over. But that doesn’t mean that Tammara Webber makes it easy (see what I did there?) for them to be together, and that, to me, is what EASY is really about.
I know that self-published work usually gets a bad rep because the potential for an unedited, unfocused mess is high. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Tammara Webber had to publish her own book (although this is probably more indicative of my naivete about publishing than anything else). EASY is nothing at all like the stuff I usually associate with self-publishing. It’s well-written, dramatic, clean (like, grammatically), and pretty much impossible to put down thanks to great characters, seriously hot sexytimes, and more. After I finished EASY, I went right to Amazon and bought all of Tammara Webber‘s other books. EASY is insanely good stuff, and I can’t wait to read more from Tammara!
First of all, I cracked up here. —> “This makes me cringey, but if it gets Jacqueline within 50 feet of Lucas, I guess I can deal.”
I loved this story SO MUCH. YES to every single thing you said. This is one that I’d have skipped over COMPLETELY – and DID – because of the cover! But one or two reading friends that I trust recommended it to me, and you KNOW how it is when a trusted reading buddy recommends a book…you KNOW you have to read it.
I plopped my butt down and didn’t get up, at all. Seriously, other than that, I was GLUED to the Lucas-Jacqueline story. I loved it. I was SAD SAD SAD when it was over. Like, I want it on TV. So I can watch all the stuff, DVR’d. Or Netflix’d.
You know what I’m talking about. I loved the heck out of this book. Indies have a bad rep but sometimes it is undeserved, and this is one instance of that. I agree with all of your thoughts! I loved Easy!
I absolutely ADORED Easy. I read it in one sitting, and I was thinking about it for the rest of that day. Tammara Webber’s writing is incredible, and she did a great job pulling this story together. And I loved Lucas! <3