There's No Reason

"Give Me a Reason" by A. L. Jackson is a romance novel that tells the story of Eden, a kindergarten teacher, and Trent, an ex-biker, whose love sparks in unlikely places and falls into place in even unlikelier circumstances. It's a typical bad boy good girl enemies to lovers trope with an interesting but underdeveloped shocking ending.

I'm surprised at how many spectacular reviews that are left for this book.

Yes, the first few chapters of the novel pull the reader effortlessly but as the story progressed, my desire to continue to the end dwindled.

Trent's character's speech tore my attention away from the book. At first, the way that he spoke matched his character. However, there were times when what he said did not match who he is. Then, as we see more of him, the essence of his speech changed too drastically. In that respect and alternatively, I don't believe his son's dialogue was believable either. Yes, he is in kindergarten; but, his lines fit more of a character who spoke broken English, rather than a five year old's.

Eden's character had depth. She is beautiful. She's a good girl. But I never really rooted for her. I wanted to but there wasn't enough for me to be emotionally invested. I guess I didn't believe in her as a character either.

Honestly, if we had more information about her, Eden's sister would have been my favorite character. And we didn't see much of him but I loved her dad as well.

Maybe I missed clues that were in the story but I wish the story gave more reason for the ending. Don't get me wrong, I love a plot twist; but, I do not like ones that come out of nowhere. I like to be able to go back and see where the author leads us to the conclusion and then feel like an idiot because it was staring me in the face the whole time.

Overall, I would not recommend this book. It had some interesting ideas in the beginning but they were not sustained throughout the story. The critical reviews of the book were pretty spot on, unfortunately.

Let me know if you've read this story. What are your thoughts? This is the first of hopefully many book reviews that I'll post on here. If there are any books that you'd like to discuss, leave them in the comments. All genres are welcome! Welcome to the book club! ~J

**"Give Me a Reason" is an adult novel, 18+**