The Natural History of Us by Rachel Harris

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Title: The Natural History of Us
Author: Rachel Harris
Series: The Fine Art of Pretending #2
Published by: Spencer Hill Contemporary
Release Date: April 5th 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 311
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

One class assignment. One second chance at love. The school player is all in. Now he needs to win back the sweet commitment girl who's forever owned his heart.

Justin Carter has a secret. He's not the total player Fairfield Academy believes him to be. Not really. In fact, he used to be a one-woman guy...and his feelings for her never went away. Too bad he broke her heart three years ago and made sure to ruin any chance she'd ever forgive him.

Peyton Williams is a liar. She pretends to be whole, counting down the days until graduation and helping her parents at the family ranch. But the truth is, she's done everything she can to get over Justin, and salvation is just around the corner. With graduation one short month away, she'll soon break free from the painful memories and start her life fresh. Of course, she has to get through working with him on one last assignment first.

For Justin, nothing ever felt as right as being with Peyton, and now that fate's given him a shot at redemption, he's determined to make the most of it. And for Peyton...well, Justin Carter has always been her kryptonite.

My Review:

4 stars — I was so intrigued by Justin’s character in The Fine Art of Pretending, and I was so happy with the story we got for him!  There was a lot to it, and I appreciated all the little nuances.

Justin was EVERYTHING.  I mean, he was a straight up asshole for what he did in freshman year, but he was so vulnerable and damaged and I just wanted something good to happen to him.  Seeing all his emotions when he was at Peyton’s for Easter was just…tore my heart out, you know?  He really did have a lot to learn and a lot of growing up to do, but I felt like I saw him do that.  And I loved that while he wasn’t perfect and got a bit too jealous and manipulative with Cade, I appreciated that he also wanted what was best for Peyton.

Peyton was a bunch of awesome too.  You could feel her sunshiney self peeking through in the freshman years, how much she appreciated life, how fearless she attempted to be, how guileless she was.  I loved that she saw past Justin’s facade, and couldn’t help but reach out to him and try to make him see himself through her eyes.  I was less impressed with senior year Peyton, but I also understood how she came to be that way.  She actually regressed, but there were still bits of her true self inside.  I wished I could have seen her growth better.  I wasn’t happy with the way she treated Cade and the way that all played out in the end.  I wanted her to own up to her feelings and be a better person than she was (even though I get that no one’s perfect and we all make mistakes).  I think she was awfully lucky that Cade handled it as well as he did and she didn’t lose a friend.  I get that he should have known that she didn’t love him in the same way, but she’s still playing with someone’s feelings, you know??  I hated that.

I LOVED the development of Peyton and Justin’s relationship in the past.  They were so cute together and I totally saw how they complemented each other and brought out good things in each other.  I loved their connection, and while I was a bit weirded out thinking about 15 year olds getting it on (that seems so young), I sort of let it pass.  The present was a bit harder, b/c there were misunderstandings, hurt feelings, all that stuff in their way.  Not to mention another boyfriend.  But I loved the few moments we got with them together working on the project.  The connections they made were palpable.  I loved the answers she gave that first date night.  I also loved how he helped her get over her fears and get back to herself.

I LOVED the introduction of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.  A friend of my SIL actually suffered from this, and while I’m not close to her and don’t know all she went through, what I heard through my SIL sounded just insane.  It was nice to see it brought up and addressed if that makes sense.  It wasn’t present in such a way that we really saw her go through it, just the aftermath and how it affected Peyton and her family.

Honestly, a whole chunk of this book was solid 5 stars.  Honest to goodness.  There was a lot of emotion in it, and some pretty interesting ups and downs that felt authentic for a teenage relationship.  I even enjoyed the past and present parts, they seemed to fit and flow fairly well.  Occasionally it got a bit confusing, just because the senior/freshman thing wasn’t super prominent and so I wouldn’t initially realize which one we were in (not to mention one of the past flashbacks had the wrong date — May instead of January).  But the part that lost that whole star could be summed up with the presence of the Cade character.  I think Justin and Peyton had enough going on that they didn’t need to add in another boyfriend.  Or if they did, I felt like that resolution needed to happen differently.  And even if I ignore all that, I wanted something more with the climax/confrontation/resolution of the past.  Does that make sense?  It felt too easy.  I needed them to have deeper discussions or something.

So a definite hit with me in general, I was super satisfied with Justin’s HEA.