Review : The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : The Infinite Moment of Us
Author : Lauren Myracle
Publication Date : August 27th 2013
Publisher : Amulet Books
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For as long as she can remember, Wren Gray’s goal has been to please her parents. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization: Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now... not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are?

Charlie Parker, on the other hand, is painfully aware of his heart’s desire. A gentle boy with a troubled past, Charlie has loved Wren since the day he first saw her. But a girl like Wren would never fall for a guy like Charlie—at least not the sort of guy Charlie believes himself to be.

And yet certain things are written in the stars. And in the summer after high school, Wren and Charlie’s souls will collide. But souls are complicated, as are the bodies that house them...

Sexy, romantic, and oh-so-true to life, this is an unforgettable look at first love from one of young adult fiction’s greatest writers.

Personal Thoughts

The Infinite Moment of Us wasn't that bad of a book as I expected it to be, but it wasn't that great of a book either. It fell somewhere in the middle which is why it's so hard for me to review this book. I wanted this to be intense, romantic and make me want to experience first love all over again. To some extent, it did, but the added drama that could have been avoided became unbearable after some time.

I honestly wanted to love both Wren and Charlie. While they were okay characters, they did make poor choices that sometimes left me pulling my own hair. Wren was the least likeable of the two. At first, I actually had no problem with her. In fact, I thought of her as a normal teenager, who did normal things that girls her age usually did except for the fact that she had never dated anyone. She was a really sweet and caring girl, but as the book progressed, she began to annoy me with the little things she did. The one example that comes to my mind is when Wren thought Charlie was choosing his foster family and his paralyzed half brother over her when he would cancel plans to look after his brother. Another example is when Wren constantly wondered if Charlie really did love her because he wouldn't offer to go to Guatemala with her for a charity project. I thought it was selfish of her to expect Charlie to abandon his family and let go of his goal to go to college to be with her.

Charlie wasn't all that better either, but I'll admit that I might have liked him slightly more than I loved Wren. Charlie had gone through a lot while being in the foster care system and he had his share of issues. However, I never felt for him as much as I wanted to. He was definitely a nice guy who cared about his loved ones, but he was also naive at times because he let himself be easily manipulated by Starrla, a girl he used to frequently sleep with. His constant omission of the truth and sometimes lying really bothered me. Now, I get that both he and Wren were still teenagers, but that still didn't mean it was any less frustrating for me as a reader to watch them make awful decisions.

The romance in this book was decent, in my opinion. There were some very sweet moments between Wren and Charlie and watching them experience first love was quite interesting. Despite that, I never felt a strong connection to the romance, in the sense that I didn't experience the chemistry between the characters. I wanted to feel more of the love that existed between them, which unfortunately did not happen. The one thing that I appreciated in this novel was the depiction of the physical intimacies between a teenage couple. It's not a secret that teenagers have sex and I appreciated that the author showed this in an authentic manner. Also, The Infinite Moment of Us positively portrayed a foster home family. In most YA novels I have read, the foster family usually consists of drug addicts or alcoholic parents, but not in this one. One final aspect that prevented me from enjoying The Infinite Moment of Us was the third person writing. Third person POV is the worst. I can never connect with the characters and I acknowledge that this might be one of the reasons why they never resonated with me on an emotional level. It felt like there was a wall preventing me from reaching their emotions and feelings.

In the end, I thought The Infinite Moment of Us didn't pack that much of an emotional punch as I expected it to. I would have liked a bit more depth and characters that were a bit more fleshed-out. While this book did not fully satisfy me, you might end up enjoying it.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 2/5
Writing : 3/5

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the e-ARC of The Infinite Moment of Us.