"What if your soul mate is...your best friend's boyfriend?
Lani and Erin are lifelong best friends - and total opposites. Lani's a down-to-earth Taurus; Erin's a fiery Leo. Lani likes to do her own thing; Erin prefers an entourage. They've always had wildly different tastes, from pizza toppings to guys.
That is, until Erin starts dating Jason.
From the minute Lani meets Jason, she can't deny the amazing connection she feels with him. It's like they've known each other their whole lives. She's not sure if he feels it too - but even if he does, he's off limits. Lani's determined to ignore her feelings for Jason, no matter how powerful they are, rather than hurt her best friend. Then Erin goes away for the summer - and Jason seems to appear everywhere Lani turns. How long can she keep running from the guy who might just be the love of her life?"
I've read 2 of Susane Colasanti's previous books, When It Happens and Take Me There, both of which I really enjoyed. So I was looking forward to this one and hoping I'd love it as well. Sadly didn't happen. Honestly I didn't enjoy this book too much at all. The premise is fine, the plotting and pacing is fine, but I just didn't really like any of the three main characters.
Lani and Erin are supposed to be best friends. The forever kind having survived an traumatic accident together as kids. They've drifted of late, but they both still say they're best friends, still spend a lot of time hanging out. But from my view as a reader, there is little left there between them. Lani is a bug believer in fate and following her horoscopes, but when it comes to standing up for herself, to Erin, Jason, her parents and other friends, she's far too passive. She won't share her real feelings or she'll go with what someone else says because she feels its better to please them. I think she completely mishandles the situations she finds herself in and while I can understand her guilt getting the better of her, it just annoyed me.
Erin is one of the popular girls, she likes having people around her and being the center of attention. There was little about her behaviour, towards Lani and others, to like to start with. But when she, inevitably, finds out about Jason and Lani's feelings, she doesn't even attempt to hear out her 'best friend' she just tears her apart. Again, I understand why she's angry and why she feels the need to lash out, but the extent of her selfishness about it did nothing but irritate me. Not sure how she didn't notice the feelings between Jason and Lani from the start either to be honest, it was pretty obvious and that didn't help her credibility. And there just wasn't enough to Jason at all for me to form a particularly good or bad opinion of him. I wasn't impressed with how he handled his feelings for either girl, but there wasn't really anything to seriously dislike about him either.
My favourite part of this book was actually the subplot going on with Lani's other best friend, Blake. He held my interest and sympathy. I found myself getting really involved with his story, even though there was very little to it. I wanted more of him and his issues and less of the main story. I was surprised how much I ended up caring what happened to him and how impressed I was with how he dealt with the things thrown at him.
Overall it wasn't really a bad book. The initial plot, best friends both interested in one guy and trying to deal with it, is fine. But without likable characters, or at least being able to relate to them somehow, it just falls flat for me. Won't put me off Susane's other books, like I said at the start I've already really enjoyed a couple of hers, but this one just didn't work for me. Had it's moments, particularly with Blake, but that was it really. The ending wasn't great either, not really wrapping things up enough just kind of...stopping. Shame, I wanted to like this book. 5/10
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