Review : Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Anything To Have You
Author : Paige Harbison
Publication Date : January 28th 2014
Publisher : Harlequin Teen
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Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.

Natalie and Brooke have had each other's backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie—the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be.

Then it happens—one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.

Personal Thoughts

I personally don't enjoy stories involving cheating, but I was curious about Anything to Have You because I had heard nothing but praise about Paige Harbison. I probably should have stayed away from this book because it didn't work for me on any level.

Natalie and Brooke have been friends for a really long time. Why they were even friends was completely beyond me. Their relationship was kind of toxic and I'm pretty sure neither of them tolerated each other too much. Natalie was the sweet, quiet one while Brooke was the alcoholic who would spend pretty much every night partying. There was this underlying feeling of competitiveness in their relationship, and not in a good way, which made me feel really uncomfortable. As harsh as this sounds, I was waiting for them to part ways and break their friendship. Natalie was a decent character, but I can't personally say I connected with her on any level. She did infuriate me at times, for not standing up for herself, especially when it came to Brooke, but I suppose she was meant to be depicted that way. Brooke, on the other hand, was just plain awful. I couldn't stand the girl and I pretty much hated every scene she was in (which was the entire book). She's the kind of friend who only comes to you when she needs you. I hated how she behaved towards Natalie, especially when she forces herself onto Aiden, while knowing very well that Natalie had a crush on him, but was too scared to talk to him. Her alcoholic/partying ways didn't help either. In short, Brooke was a complete bitch.

Like I said, I'm not a fan of cheating in my books, but I thought it was dealt in a good way in this one. Aiden and Natalie have sex at a party, but both of them were beyond drunk. I appreciated that they didn't move their physical relationship forward out of respect for Brooke (although she was also busy pursuing some guy despite still being in a relationship with Aiden. Plus, this guy actually treated Natalie like complete shit! Way to be supportive, Brooke!). This book had a lot of themes going on and one of the main ones was betrayal. However, I felt like none of the themes were handled properly. It was messy and by the end, I was unsatisfied. I also disliked the writing style. The book starts off in Natalie's POV and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it switches to Brooke's POV, which only made me dislike this book even more. The problem was that a lot of scenes were repeated and Brooke was terrible. I ended up skipping huge sections out of Brooke's POV.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book although if you are interested, you should check out a library copy instead of actually buying it.

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

Thank you to Harlequin Teen and NetGalley for the e-ARC of Anything To Have You.