Review : While It Lasts by Abbi Glines

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : While It Lasts (Seabreeze #3)
Author : Abbi Glines
Publisher : Self-Published
Publication Date : July 31st 2012
Goodreads - Amazon


Maybe driving home after a few (or more) shots of tequila had been a bad idea, but hell, he did it all the time. The cops had to have been freaking bored to have pulled him over. He wasn’t even swerving! That’s Cage York’s story and he’s sticking to it.

Unfortunately, his baseball coach isn’t buying it. Cage has a free ride to the local junior college for baseball -- or he did, until he’d gotten a DUI. Now, Cage has to decide: does he drop out and give up his dream of getting noticed by a college in the SEC, and possibly making it into the Major Leagues -- or does he give in to his coach’s demands and spend his summer baling hay?

Eva Brooks planned out her life step by step when she was eight years old. Not once over the years had she lost sight of her goals. Josh Beasley, her next door neighbor, had been the center of those goals. He’d been her first boyfriend at seven, her first kiss at ten, her first date at fifteen, and her first tragedy at eighteen. The moment she’d received the phone call from Josh’s mother saying he’d been killed along with four other soldiers just north of Baghdad, Eva’s carefully planned life imploded in the worst way possible.

Cage isn’t real happy with his closet-sized bedroom in the back of a foul smelling barn, or his daily interactions with cows, but he knows that if he doesn’t make his coach happy then he can kiss his scholarship goodbye. Only a sick and twisted man would decide his punishment was to be working on a farm all summer. No hot babes in bikinis waiting to meet a Southern boy to make her vacation complete. Just him and the damned cows.

Oh -- and an uptight, snarky brunette with the biggest blue eyes he’s every seen. But she doesn’t count, because as hard as he’s tried to charm her out of her panties - he’s pretty sure she’d rather see him hung from the rafters than let him get a taste of her pretty little lips.


Personal Thoughts

I've never been an Abbi Glines fan. I've read several of her books, but none of them really appealed to me. Yet, for some reason I wanted to give this book a shot although I hadn't read the previous book, Because Of Low. After reading this, I'm convinced that Abbi Glines just isn't the author for me. 
 
When Cage York gets a DUI, his baseball coach sends him off to a farm to work or else he could wind up losing baseball scholarship to his college. Cage, who adores girls, expects to only have a huge work load and no pretty girls around. Eva Brooks lost the love of her life 18 months ago. She's now learning to deal with her grief, but when Cage comes storming into her life, her life turns upside down.

I had a few problems with the characters in this book, the first being how cliched they all were. There was the virginal, innocent and grief-stricken heroine, the horny, sexy and flirty hero who's never had a serious relationship in his life and survives on a string of one-night stands, the jock friends and the slutty girl who makes the main character jealous. Honestly, they all simply left a bad taste in my mouth. Now, I don't think I would have had a problem if them if they had been a little more developed than they had been. I thought Eva had the capability of being a great main character, but she only really had a personality when she was with Cage. She could be snarky and sarcastic. I liked that she didn't really allow him to mess with her or treat her like one of his one-night stands. The girl had some self-worth that I appreciated. However, on other instances, I just found her to be bland. Also, I never really felt the depth of her grief over the loss of her boyfriend, not enabling me to feel for her. I guess in the end, I never really connected with her character. Cage was a character I liked a teensy bit better than Eva. I liked the growth that he underwent when he came to work on the farm. I'm all for characters who build up their personalities over the course of the story, so I liked him. However, part of me strongly disliked him as well. His mannerisms and way of talking was a little annoying. He was too cocky, too confident. He knew the effect he had on girls and at times I felt like his confidence edged on conceit. Also, the sudden way he changed for Eva was a little unbelievable. In the end, when I thought about it, I realized that the characters didn't appeal to me.

While I thought Cage and Eva had an intense chemistry, I also thought the romance was very sappy and cheesy. It was, in fact, one of those romance novels where the bad boy falls for the innocent girl. The book was also very much drama-filled. Cage and Eva had a roller-coaster kind of relationship that had its ups and downs. They constantly broke up and then made up, sometime for silly reasons. Frankly, that could be very annoying. One thing that really bothered me in While It Lasts was how the characters kept describing how hot the other one was. Once or twice is okay with me, but Cage and Eva kept going on and on about what hot bodies they other had that I started to get annoyed a little. The writing itself was great. I have read Abbi Glines' Breathe and didn't enjoy the writing style at all. From this book, I can conclude that her prose has definitely improved and that's always a good thing. Also, the dual POV is well-written. Abbi Glines managed to capture Cage's mentality really well.
There's one thing I need to point out about the content of this book. It contains explicit sexual content. I don't mind having sex in my YA books, whether it's pure YA or Mature YA, but I thought it would be sensible to warn future readers about it since I know some of my blogger friends don't approve of them being too detailed. Also, there's some strong language. If those are things that you don't approve in your books, then this is not the book for you.

Overall, While It Lasts wasn't the book for me. I didn't go into the book with high expectations, but I was still disappointed. If you're a fan of Abbi Glines' , then you might enjoy the story.

[Note : This book is for mature readers because of explicit sexual content, language and heavy alcohol use]

Rating

Cover : 3/5
Characters : 2/5
Plot : 2/5
Writing : 3/5

Actual Rating : 2.5/5