Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Title: Love Story
Author: Jennifer Echols
Pages: 243
Genre: YA / Fiction
Source: Simon & Schuster

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.

When Erin puts her foot down and pursues her dream of being a writer – she finds herself stripped of her inheritance and alone at college trying to make a good impression on her creative writing professor and classmates. She writes love stories with her Kentucky farm as the backdrop and her beloved stable boy as her leading man. The same stable boy who her grandmother has bestowed her inheritance upon and whom walks in as the new student in her writing class. As if gaining respect from her classmates as romance author isn’t hard enough. But now, with Hunter (a/k/a the stable boy) in her class reading and criticizing her stories everyone is bound to find out that the stable boy is not just a figment of her imagination.

As one of Jennifer Echols’ fangirls – I was wooed (and I’m sure many of you were too) by the stunning cover and synopsis of Love Story. I mean you can feel the waves of “perfect summer read” coming off of it just from glancing at it. But, (and I’m shrieking at myself over this) – it just didn’t hit the bliss-o-meter, not the way “Going Too Far” and “Forget You” did for me. There were some aspects of the story that I really liked – especially when it came to the stories within the story. Yes, we get to read the short stories Erin and Hunter write for their creative writing class. I loved how it became almost a battle of the minds between them. Questioning and answering each other within their stories. I even enjoyed the time we spend debating with their classmates on the significance of the writing, the characters, the plots, etc. But my reservations were for the characters themselves. I had a hard time relating to Erin and Hunter. Although for the most part, they were realistic, I felt that they bordered on the too dramatic.. which led to moments of frustration on my part. I rooted for their love story to come to fruition but at the same time I found that I really didn’t care that much. Sadly, and I’m seriously pouting over this, I was disappointed.

Now does that mean I’ve given up on Jennifer Echols? Heck no!! On the other hand, I can’t wait for her next book.

My Rating: