© ✰ Bianca ✰ Janeane ✰
• standalone
• Contemporary Romance
★★
2 Stars
My life is like a coin.
There are two sides.
On one side, I am Leela Walsh: daughter, sister, employee at three minimum-wage jobs.
I cook. Do laundry. Contribute to the debt my family is sinking in.
On the second side, I am Leela Walsh: Straight-A student, top graduate of my class, med student.
No one knows of my brother’s sordid past. My sister’s poor decisions. Or that I’m the first in my family to graduate high school.
The balance between these two sides is nearly impossible to maintain. And it only becomes more difficult when I meet Wes McCleary.
He’s never had a job. Never wanted for anything.
And now, he wants me.
There are a thousand reasons we shouldn’t be together, and just one that keeps bringing us together.
Will that one reason be enough?
24 year old Leela has worked very hard for everything in life.
She grew up in a trailer park in Southern California. She had multiple jobs ever since she can remember.
And all that hard work paid off - she's getting closer to her dream. The dream she had since she was five years old. Be a doctor!
She's in her second year of med school when she meets Wes.
He's in her class and he didn't have the hard life she had ...
Could they ever be together? Him with his rich friends and worry-free live?
And her with her jobs and her troubled siblings and her cheap clothes?
And does she even want a boyfriend? Can she have that? She doesn't want anything or anyone stopping her from reaching her goal.
And was Wes's life really as worry-free as she thinks it was?
WILL THERE BE A HEA??
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT ☺
First of all - the cover is the best thing about this book!
And now follows a bit of a rant. Don't read it if you're easily offended!
If I had known that this was part of a series, I would've NEVER read it!
That's probably why the author didn't mention it anywhere. NOT NICE!
I hate that. There's nothing worse for me in my reading world than reading a book and thinking ... what's with all those people mentioned here? Why are there so many friends around and we're introduced to them all by name and what they do. Have we met them before? Are they being introduced because they'll be getting their own story? And then towards the middle of the book I couldn't stand it anymore and I did some research on goodreads, only to find out that Ace and Max already had a WHOLE TRILOGY ABOUT THEM!!!
It's probably amazing for fans of that trilogy (that I never read) to find out that Wes finally gets his own book - but for this reader it's HELL! I don't do books that are part of a series that I haven't read!
DON'T DO THAT TO ME AUTHORS! If even one tiny little person has been in a previous book - IT NEEDS TO SAY SO IN THE BLURB! Just a tiny little line like: Slightly connected standalone! Or Meet Wes from the Bla Bla Series again.
Ok - now my thoughts about the story:
(My thoughts before I found out about the 'series' thing.)
This was a sweet College Romance with lots of problems for our darlings.
I enjoyed reading it.
It started a bit ... weird. I had to read the first page twice because the writing was too complicated for my brain. I didn't get where we were and who loved hot weather and who loved the cold and the sun and ... what?
The whole beginning was a bit complicated. The writing for one, plus ... There are so many people we're being introduced to and I had to repeat the names Leela and Wes in my head constantly - I didn't want to forget who the main people were!
Why so many people? I sometimes had the feeling that some of their stories had already been told or were about to be told in another book - it was just too much about other people!
But the story was... pretty adorable. Cute. Sad. Scary. A bit mysterious. Funny.
I liked it. Even though nothing much happens - at least not between our two main characters. It's more about Wes and Max and Ace and about Leela and her problematic family than about the both of them together. There's not really much spark between them in my opinion. And then once their story is finally starting a bit - the book is over!
And they're 24! But if someone would've told me it was a first year of college story - aka them being 19 or even still high school - I would've said YES - that's more like it!
I don't know. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this book ... I'm really sorry.
It's probably all my weird brain. Many people will really love the sweet and tame love story ... but I just couldn't. It wasn't all bad. There were cute and moving moments ... but it was too filled up with all those people a new reader doesn't know and care for .... this was just not my day for this book.
Also ... the writing was a bit high-school-ish, right? Or rather, trying too hard to sound smart and literature-ish, but still high school-level writing. It was all so weird.
Does anyone in SoCal say POP to a soda?? I don't think so.
And what young person would say When do they want to PERFORM the surgery????
A young guy would say... When IS your surgery or When are they gonna cut you open... but perform?? I get they're med students, but still. The whole writing tried too hard to sound smart.
And OMG. What's with the cars? They get into their cars and start the engine, and then they do something like checking their phones or reading some papers, to let the engine warm up?!?!?!?!? WTF? We're in the summer in Southern Cali and not in 1978 Sibiria!!!! Jeez.
I'm pretty sure Mariah learned that from her grandpa in wet and cold Oregon! ☺
BUT - please don't let me scare you off too much. It was a pretty ok romance with some serious moments and topics. I liked the idea of the story. And I really see what Mariah wanted this to be. Something heartbreaking and deep and intense and important with lots of love and hope.
I love the cover. But the cute couple on the cover. Wes and Leela weren't even romantically together enough times to take so many pretty couples pics! ☺☺☺
I expected more.
Today was not our day dear A THOUSAND REASONS! Sorry.
And I also know that there are many readers out there who see a 1/2/3-star review and think WHAT? No way that book is that bad - I really want to read it now - DO IT - please. Everybody needs to make up their own minds ... ♥
A THOUSAND REASONS was a sweet love story about two people from completely different worlds. Will they get their HEA?
Run to your nearest amazon to find out!
↓ LiNKS TO THE BOOK & AUTHOR ↓
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Mariah Dietz lives with her husband and three sons, who are the axis of her crazy and wonderful world in North Carolina.
Mariah grew up in a tiny town outside of Portland, Oregon, where she spent most of her time immersed in the pages of books that she both read and created.
