Blog Tour Stop : Hard Knox by Nicole Williams

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Hard Knox (The Outsider Chronicles #1)
Author : Nicole Williams
Publication Date : August 12th 2014
Publisher : Self Published
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble 

Knox Jagger. The name inspires resent in every male at Sinclair University, want in every female, and contempt in Charlie Chase.

Charlie can be summed up in three words: independent, independent, and independent. To Charlie, Knox epitomizes everything that’s wrong with college males: prolific one-night stands, drunken senseless fights, and a body that hints at prioritizing gym time over study time.

As an up-and-coming writer for Sinclair University’s newspaper, Charlie’s tasked with getting to the bottom of who’s been dropping little white pills into girls’ drinks at parties. In an ocean of All-American boys sporting polo shirts and innocent smiles, Knox is the obvious suspect. As evidence piles up against the bad boy of Sinclair, Charlie becomes more and more certain it isn’t Knox. But when her drink is dosed at a party and she wakes up on Knox’s couch the next morning, Charlie’s left with more questions than answers when it comes to Knox Jagger.

How can Charlie ever hope to uncover the truth behind a guy so closed off he’s become . . .

Hard Knox. 

Personal Thoughts

Having loved Nicole Williams, Lost & Found series, I was thrilled to find out that she was writing a new NA contemporary series. My interest piqued further when I realized that Hard Knox would tackle an important issue that is perpetuating on US college campuses, date rape.

I usually have no problem connecting with Nicole Williams' main characters, but the main character in Hard Knox was a little irritating. I had a hard time bonding with her because of her unlikeable personality. She was one of those people who judged others before even having a conversation, just from how she viewed them. She would also be very forthcoming about her judgments and it came across as bitchy instead of honest. Charlie also talked using big words and sentence structures that most people don't talk in and it felt like she was showing people how much smarter and more intelligent she was than them when she was having a conversation. She came across as condescending, obnoxious and a bit of a know-it-all. I'm all for smart main characters, but Charlie was just a little too much for me. I'll admit that she did mature throughout the book, especially as she got to know Knox, learning that having preconceived notions about people from their looks was wrong. Speaking of Knox, he was a character I loved. He had the exterior of a bad boy and he let people believe the rumor that he was a man-whore, when he actually wasn't. I loved getting to know him throughout the book as he proved Charlie wrong. He was a such a sweet-heart and he was also intelligent without being flagrant about it, which made him all the more attractive to me.

While I didn't particularly enjoy Charlie, I did love her slow burn relationship with Knox. They were initially attracted to each other, but their relationship wasn't by any means instant. They slowly got to know each other while the plot developed and it was very sweet. The romance wasn't the focus of the book though. The themes related to date rape drugs were. I'm actually grateful to Nicole Williams for focusing her book on a problem that has relevance on campuses today. She also did it in a realistic way, showing the subtlety that rapists often have in these situations. Additionally, she showed how it's almost always someone you already know who winds up being the rapists and it doesn't matter how careful you are, you're always at risk when roofies are passed around. It was all very educational, according to me. Charlie herself got roofied multiple times during Hard Knox. Thankfully, Knox was almost always around her, so he was there to protect her. The mystery as to who was doing it was actually quite predictable, and I figured it out quite early on, but it didn't really bother me.

I might not have liked Charlie's arrogance in Hard Knox, but I did appreciate the author writing a NA book about a socially relevant subject matter. I reckon if I bonded a bit better with Charlie, I would have rated this a solid 4 stars. I would recommend this book if you're into NA books that actually dig deeper into issues that college students can face.

Rating

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

Author Biography

I'm a wife, a mom, a writer. I started writing because I loved it and I'm still writing because I
love it. I write young adult because I still believe in true love, kindred spirits, and happy endings.
Here's to staying young at heart *raises champagne glass* . . . care to join me?

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nwilliamsbooks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nwilliamsbooks

Blog: http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/

Giveaway 

Check out this link for a giveaway of Hard Knox.

A big thank you to AToMR blog tours for allowing me to participate in this blog tour. Be sure to check out their website for more great tours.