Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Book Review: Train Wreck by Elise Faber

train wreck
noun

1. A chaotic or disastrous situation.
2. An utter catastrophe or mess.
3. A devastating calamity or source of trouble.
4. Pepper O’Brien.

As the daughter of a famed film producer, Pepper O’Brien is Hollywood royalty.

Also, her life sucks.

Because, unfortunately for her, the old adage is true: money can’t buy everything—including grace, true love, or the ability to not screw up every single opportunity her life has brought her.

After her latest disaster, Pepper moves across the country to start over but, as usual, her life has other plans, namely in the form of Derek Cashette, her former teenage crush and now ridiculously handsome friend of her older brother.

Derek is determined to salvage the train wreck of her life and Pepper’s determined not to let him. Her life is her problem and, dammit, why can’t she be her own hero?

But sometimes fate has other plans. Or maybe it’s hormones. Especially when her rescuer comes with a killer smile, a chest Thor would be jealous of, and a butt that any girl just wants to—






I was lucky enough to read a book recently that had a novella from Elise Faber in it and I absolutely adored it. And this one wasn't too bad either.

The storyline for Train Wreck was really good. I enjoyed getting to know Pepper through all of her mishaps. Pepper is such a clumsy lady, you do find yourself starting to feel really badly for her because of the situations that she finds herself in. Granted ... most of these situations are pretty funny as they are happening and then as you keep reading, you feel guilty for laughing to begin with. When you're introduced to Derek, you can't help but root for him. He seemed to have the classic underdog stigma and you'll find yourself just pulling for him from the get-go. For the most part, the story really chugged along at a great pace and with the exception of a couple of spots, it really didn't lose momentum and the fun idea of the novel carried you through to the end.

For me, I really gave super short descriptions about the characters. Unfortunately, there's a reason for that. As much as I empathized with Pepper and found her endearing and as much as I rooted for Derek, that is kind of where my feelings ended for these two. If I'm totally honest ... I kind of found them absolutely forgettable. Not good. And while that isn't a really nice thing to say about something someone has slaved over ... that's just how it was for me this time. After I put the book down, I sat there and I couldn't remember what either of these characters looked like. Their descriptions just eluded me. I remembered bits and pieces about their personalities, obviously, but that was it. Two characters that I enjoyed reading about had become non-entities by the end of the book. Because Pepper and Derek started to kind of Back-to-the-Future-mickey-mouse-shirt-fade on me over time, so did their romance. It lost the spark for me and I didn't feel the heat surrounding their interactions as I had in the beginning. Honestly, this could be for a number of reasons ... more than likely I disconnected from the characters because I've got summer brain and I'm lucky to know my own name and day of the week. 

Like I said, it was entertaining if for nothing else than to see what Pepper is going to get herself into next. This book is loved by many and I'm definitely in the minority with my thoughts on the characters. So don't take my word for it, give it a shot. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *



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