Attraction by Penny Reid

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Title: Attraction
Author: Penny Reid
Series: Elements of Chemistry #1, Hypothesis #1.1
Published by: Tantor Audio
Release Date: June 30, 2015
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Cris Dukehart
Length: 4 hours and 36 minutes
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Sports Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Reading Assignment Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

One week.Private beach.Invisible girl.Jerk-faced bully.What’s the worst that could happen?

Kaitlyn Parker has no problem being the invisible girl, which is why she finds herself hiding in various cabinets and closets all over her college campus. Despite her best efforts, she can’t escape the notice of Martin Sandeke—bad boy, jerkface bully, and the universe’s hottest, wealthiest, and most unobtainable bachelor—who also happens to be Kaitlyn’s chemistry lab partner.

Kaitlyn might be the only girl who isn’t interested in exploiting his stunning rower’s build, chiseled features, and family's billionaire fortune. Kaitlyn wants Martin for his brain, specifically to tabulate findings of trace elements in surface water.

When Kaitlyn saves Martin from a nefarious plot, Martin uses the opportunity to push Kaitlyn out of her comfort zone: spring break, one week, house parties, bathing suits, and suntan lotion. Can she overcome her aversion to being noticed? Will he be able grow beyond his self-centered nature? Or, despite their obvious chemistry, will Martin be the one to drive Kaitlyn into the science cabinet of obscurity for good?

My Review:

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
4.5 stars — Sucked in right from the beginning of this book, mostly because of our delightfully hilarious heroine Kaitlyn (or Parker as I remember her more often). I mean seriously, how can I not love someone who hides in closets and doesn’t know how to interact with people? She’s so honest and blunt and just plain adorable. She’s everything I love in a heroine.

Martin, on the other hand, I’m still reserving judgement on. He has some great moments, and I see the things that Kaitlyn sees in him, but just like her, he frustrates me. But I kind of like that he doesn’t have this abrupt turn around into good guy…he’s still Martin, just showing his three dimensions more. And it’s not like Kaitlyn is without her own faults. It will be interesting to see how their relationship plays out! Can’t wait to move on to the next installment….

ON REREAD:
4.5 stars — OMG, I completely forgot how much I LOVED this first book in the Elements of Chemistry series.  It was like it was made for me.  I absolutely adored Kaitlyn from the FIRST SENTENCE.  Martin, not so much.  But I’m not an alpha male girl.  At all.  BUT, I will say that having vaguely remembered this book from the first time I read it, I gave Martin’s bossiness a bit more of a pass…it’s interesting what a bit more context will do, so this is definitely one of those books that benefits from a reread I think.

I actually think the two of them are really interesting, b/c it’s completely obvious from the beginning that Kaitlyn’s a little quirky, and has some social issues.  But it’s not immediately apparent that Martin is also socially stunted.  They come at it from opposite directions almost, but in the end neither of them are really that good with people.  I kind of loved that dichotomy, and I appreciated that we got to see the stereotype (Kaitlyn) juxtaposed with the less obvious (Martin).

As for our narrator, I must say she is 100% perfect as Kaitlyn.  Like so perfect, I have a feeling this is going to be one of those cases where she makes a great book even better.  Her pacing is perfect, her delivery of Kaitlyn’s quirks is amazing, and her voices are spot on.  Like, there is this one point where Martin says something in a growly voice, then Kaitlyn repeats it in her head, and Ms. Dukehart actually made those sound different…so that Martin sounded like a guy, but then it truly sounded like Kaitlyn’s voice imitating a guy voice in her head.  That’s some next level narration people.  Needless to say I’m loving listening to it.

The funny thing is that I know it ends on a cliffhanger, but I just can’t take them.  So at 12:30 at night I was downloading the next book just so I could get some level of resolution…