Unspoken - Review

Unspoken (Woodland, # 2)

By: Jen Frederick

Published: September 13th 2013 by Pear Tree LLC

278 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Author/Publisher (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--Whore. Slut. Typhoid Mary.

I've been called all these at Central College. One drunken night, one act of irresponsible behavior, and my reputation was ruined. Guys labeled me as easy and girls shied away. To cope, I stayed away from Central social life and away from Central men, so why is it that my new biology lab partner is so irresistible to me?

He's everything I shouldn't want. A former Marine involved in illegal fighting with a quick trigger temper and an easy smile for all the women. His fists aren't the danger to me, though, it's his charm. He's sliding his way into my heart and I'm afraid that he's going to be the one to break me.

Impulsive. Unthinking. Hot tempered.

I allow instinct to rule my behavior. If it feels good, do it, has been my motto because if I spend too much time thinking, I'll begin to remember exactly where I came from. At Central College, I've got fighting and I've got women and I thought I was satisfied until I met her.

She's everything I didn't realize I wanted and the more time I spend with her, the more I want her. But she's been hurt too much in the past and I don't want to be the one to break her. I know I should walk away, but I just can't.

I enjoyed Undeclared so much. It followed up a book that I was particularly frustrated and disappointed in, and coupled with that was the personal connection I have to a relationship developing through writing back and forth. We meet Bo in Undeclared because he’s Noah’s best friend. They went to war together, and they’ve been best friends since the 7th Grade. Where I loved the fact that Noah was all about Grace and any woman not Grace wasn’t really worth a second’s consideration, Bo is the typical new adult leading male that I get so tired of reading about. Luckily we didn’t really have to experience any of Bo’s exploits once he set his eyes on AM, but my point is just that this was a slight letdown from how excited I was about Undeclared.

We meet AM for the first time in Unspoken. I was wondering if Bo would hook up with any of the female characters we met in Undeclared, but he didn’t. And this little fact was a bonus. AM’s the girl who rumors have gotten out of control with and 99% of the rumors out there about her aren’t true. I think we’ve all probably been subjected to untrue rumors going around about us, or if not us then someone we know, so it was easy to relate to AM about this. And because of the rumor mill and Bo’s hook-up history, AM is hesitant to allow herself the opportunity to try a relationship with Bo.

Unspoken revolved a lot around stereotypes, contrasts, and perception. What you see (or hear) isn’t always what you get. Men and women are different, behave differently, and are viewed differently.

I will say that about 50% through the book, this couple decided to push their issues preventing their relationship aside and try out this relationship thing they’d been nosing around. But after that, the remaining 50% of the book revolved around their physical relationship. A LOT. Pretty much every 3rd page type of thing. I know the romance genre isn’t known for its realism, but COME ON!!! On top of that, the climax, resolution, and ending of the book just didn’t feel paced correctly to me. I was expecting the major conflict to come later than it did, so when I was at 80% and everything seemed to be wrapped up in a nice, pretty bow, I wondered what else was to come. And the remaining 20% was just wrap up and filler type stuff.

Along with that, but kind of a separate thing, are you guys getting a little tired of the “three years later” epilogues? I find that I am. Maybe it’s because a book I read not too long ago and this one just had too many of these. It’s like “one year later” and you read a couple of pages, and then “three years later” and then “eighteen years later.” These epilogues that jump down the road into the future multiple times have gotten to be too frequent, especially when there are multiple jumps in one book. It’s enough for me when the book has a HEA (happily ever after), I don’t need every detail spelled out to me. Sometimes leaving a little something to the reader’s imagination is better than spelling everything out.

My favorite quotes:

“AM, Thor here. I’m coming over and bringing my hammer.”

“You know we’ve got it bad when a naked and gyrating Channing Tatum can’t solve our problems.”

I did a few deep knee bends, tried to lift the car, and then rested my head against the roof, battling back all sorts of images in my head.

I have another quote I wanted to add, but it’s too much a key to the whole shebang. So I’ll let you experience that one on your own. Also, I will say that I’m looking forward to Finn’s book (book 4, Unrequited).

All in all, Unspoken was a quick read. I liked Bo and AM’s story, but I found that the book kind of dragged on a little longer than I would have liked with multiple jumped into the future. Unspoken gets 3.5 Stars from me. Have you read Unspoken? What did you think? Let me know!

P.S. - A bit of a side note but...Can I just say that it is becoming a pet peeve to hear about characters who all of a sudden realize they are crying or screaming or whatever? It is getting to be in every book I've read recently. Annoying. Plus I've never experienced that. I always know when I'm crying or screaming or making various other random noises.