Book Review - Biggest Flirts

Biggest Flirts
Author: Jennifer Echols
Series: Superlatives #1
Genres: Contemporary |  Young Adult
Release Date: May 20th 2014
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Tia just wants to have fun. She’s worked hard to earn her reputation as the life of the party, and she’s ready for a carefree senior year of hanging out with friends and hooking up with cute boys. And her first order of business? New guy Will. She can’t get enough of his Midwestern accent and laid-back swagger.

As the sparks start to fly, Will wants to get serious. Tia’s seen how caring too much has left her sisters heartbroken, and she isn't interested in commitment. But pushing Will away drives him into the arms of another girl. Tia tells herself it's no big deal.. until the yearbook elections are announced. Getting voted Biggest Flirts with Will is, well, awkward. They may just be friends, but their chemistry is beginning to jeopardise Will's new relationship — and causing Tia to reconsider her true feelings. What started as a lighthearted fling is about to get very complicated..

Even though I don't like to be too negative in a review or start it of with negative thoughts I feel like the first thing I should tell you is how disappointed I was with this book. I think that's because of how much I was looking forward to actually finally starting a Jennifer Echols books, I know that in the young adult community she is like the go to for contemporary books along with the likes of Stephanie Perkins and Jennifer E. Smith, so I've been dying to try her for a long time, because well I'm a lover of contemporary. I've been drawn to her other stuff but Biggest Flirts just sound like such a great book that I thought it would be the first of many books I would read by Jennifer, and though I will read her other work before making my mind up completely about her writing, this book just didn't work for me at all.

This book is pretty much your generic story about an attraction between the bad girl Tia and the new guy Will. They meet at a party, fool around a bit but both want separate things so they leave it at that. Only when Tia goes to the marching band practice he's not only there, but challenge her to drum captain, a title she is happy for him to have due to her being terrified of being commitment to anything. Slowly over the course of a few weeks (because the time frame for the book is something like a moth or so) Tia and Will grow closer as friends and maybe more, but she doesn't want a boyfriend as she's seen what love can do to her sisters and she pushes him away, right into the arms of the bitchy girl at school, while still continuing to flirt with him and just mess with his head in general.

I think one of the things I didn't like about this book was Tia's character, I just could not find myself connecting with her at all. When it comes to relationship she's seen the mess they make so she's happy just to fool around with boys and keep it casual but because her feelings are growing for will she's constantly changing her mind and leading him on. I didn't like any of the other characters either, I'm not exactly sure why this book just didn't click with me I just felt like no one had any real substance. I think because it's a companion series a lot of the development was left out for her friends because they will be getting their own book, and that's a shame because I would have loved to feel like I already knew them when I started their story.

The other thing I didn't like about the story was the instalove. Don't get me wrong, I know they are in high school and people always think they are falling hard for others, but it was maybe a few weeks before the 'love' word made an appearance. I could have got it wrong, because American school system is different to English, but I'm pretty sure they were around 17 (please correct me if I'm wrong) and it just seemed really unrealistic for them at that age to still be feeling 'love at first sight', I thought people got over that at like 14/15? also as I've already mentioned how against Tia was about relationship from the start, something that has been that way for years, I just didn't understand why she was so quick to give up everything she believed in (no matter how silly).

Overall s you can tell I just didn't enjoy this book that much, the potential was there and I think my expectations were a little too high but either way it just wasn't for me. I'm sad, because I thought I would love it but I am going to read more of her work, and the rest of the series.