Review: Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Title: Love Story
Author: Jennifer Echols
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: July 19, 2011
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Galley Grab

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions-it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter...so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter...except this story could come true.

Love Story is like a facepalm bound into pages. It is humorous, humiliating, and a little bit raunchy, with genuine and funny characters that make you feel their embarrassment and anger and affections.

Erin is a writer of historical romances and some people give her a hard time because of it, so she's often on the defensive. She's dedicated and a hard worker. There are times when she feels self-confident, and others when she feels vulnerable and foolish. Her range of emotions are realistic and make it easy to sympathize with her. Erin and Hunter's relationship is both intimate and awkward. They know too much about each other but have never really been great friends. He's smart, hard-working, and charming, and is easily liked. Their roommates remain largely in the background, but feel realistic and offer reliable insights into parts of the story that Erin may be seeing a bit differently than those around her.

Love Story is a light, quick read. I love the story within a story aspect of it. Erin and Hunter's stories for their creative writing class function as a dialogue between the two of them, in which they discuss their past and their present. Sometimes funny and/or humiliating, sometimes hurtful, their stories are their primary means of communicating about their relationship, or lack thereof. Their reactions toward each other can be a bit angsty, but are also raw and emotional. The end is a bit open-ended, but not in a bad way. Normally I wouldn't like this, but I feel like it works well here.

This is my first book by Jennifer Echols, and I liked it more than I thought I was going to based on the synopsis. I was worried that it would be totally cheesy with their stories for class, but it isn't. I'd recommend it as a quick, fun read for those who like awkward and complicated love stories told in honest and embarrassing ways.