Falling for the Ghost of You by Nicole Christie

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Title: Falling for the Ghost of You
Author: Nicole Christie
Published by: Indie
Release Date: October 28, 2012
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 243
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

Seventeen year old Violet Mercer returns home from her summer vacation in Hawaii to discover her boyfriend's cheating on her with a friend. As if that wasn't bad enough, her mother's marrying a man she just met.

Things take an awkward turn when Violet meets her rich new stepfather, and his gorgeous son—the hot guy whom she made a fool of herself in front of earlier that day! Zane O' Connor is sexy and charming, and way out of her league. He makes her forget her ex-boyfriend even existed. But there's no way she'd ever have a chance with him...right?

Through a strange turn of events, Violet finds herself living with Zane for a month. Somewhere between the fighting and flirting, they become friends. And it isn't long before that friendship blooms into something else...something more powerful than Violet anticipated.

But Zane is hiding something from her--something big enough to tear them apart if Violet ever discovered the truth about him. Her suspicions keep her from trusting him completely. She's been burned before—is she willing to take that risk again?

As she and Zane spend more time together, Violet realizes it's too late: she's fallen for the beautiful boy with the big secret. Will she get her heart broken twice in one year—or will her love survive the truth?

For readers seventeen and older due to sexual situations and language.

My Review:

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
4.5 stars — eeee!!! Totally fangirling all over the place with this one. This was a *happy sigh* finish. Then I started walking around thinking about all the gushing I was gonna do, and for some reason I thought maybe I should have something intelligent to say, and then I got thinking and a few things bugged me about the book. So my advice? Read it…if you fangirl loved it, LEAVE IT AT THAT. B/C I miss that feeling. 🙂

OK, I’m not going to go into my little nitpicks…nothing huge, just some stuff didn’t make as much sense when I really thought about it. Hence the no thinking part. I also felt like certain “things” (likes/dislikes) of Violet’s were just sort of thrown in there. Makes me feel like there was more in a previous version of the book, but then earlier scenes were removed and so they seem to appear out of nowhere. The princess stuff would be an example.

OK, enough with the dull. Time for some fangirling. You totally think this is gonna be about Zane right? Nope. I am fangirling Violet. She was a simply fabulous character. She was flawed in ways that have bugged me in other books, but for some reason Ms. Christie (you make good cookies) still managed to make Violet loveable. She could be both down to earth in some ways, and totally off the wall in others. I LOVED that she didn’t seem to realize her beauty and worth. Sometimes these books will take a character who doesn’t think she’s beautiful, and then have the guy go on and on about how she is. This was not the case with Violet. In the end, she was probably gorgeous, but you could NOT tell from her personality whatsoever. I don’t know if it’s b/c of the fat Violet thing, or just the quirks of her anti-social personality, but she just didn’t see it at all. Yet she didn’t obsess about it either. Even though she felt that Zane was out of her league, it wasn’t overdone and gag me like so many books. And her nervousness and social awkwardness was just adorable. How could Zane not adore that?? And seeing him fall for her….so cute. And he didn’t change his personality drastically, he still was charming and smooth, and he still wanted her and barely held himself in check. That was nice too. Not too perfect and unrealistic. They had great chemistry together, both as friends and lovers. And the sex thing was dealt with well too. And Lauren was a really different character too, but still loveable. Gah, yeah, gush much eh? I don’t know, it was just….awesome.

And on a side note, I’m not sure if it was just me, but I did not even remotely anticipate the climax. It hit me right upside the head, and I really APPRECIATED that. B/C then it wasn’t even a factor until you found out and then you could look back and view things from a different perspective. And I LOVED how Violet dealt with it, and even the HEA….she was still *her*.

Just reminded myself of one thing. I thought the Zane’s Mom thing was a weird addition that either should have been fleshed out more (how it affected him), or left out….it was kind of a big deal, and it was just sort of there and then forgotten about. I LOVED their talk on the beach, so I kind of liked the plot device, but I felt like there should be more.

And with that, PENIS!

ON REREAD:
2.5 stars — Holy about turn Batman.  Did I really change that much in 7 years?  The answer is apparently yes.  Because unlike my 2013 self, my 2020 self strongly disliked Violet.  She was a jealous, whiny, immature, slut shaming (or actually just other women shaming) bully.  How the hell did I tolerate — nay LOVE — that last time?  Like for realz, how??

The story wasn’t super well written, but kind of on par with many author’s first Indie published works.  Needs polish.  The author spent a lot of time telling us what Violet was doing here and there (she got dressed in these clothes, and then she ate, and then…etc).  I’ll give some forgiveness here given the publication date.

But what I won’t forgive is Violet.  It’s a shame, because she had some seriously funny moments too — she had some snark and sass that I love.  And it was interesting to see her so oblivious to her appearance.  There was a bit of mild fat shaming in this one too (for anyone who’s tired of that like me).  Though I will admit I laughed at one horrible joke…ah well, I’m a work in progress.

It was honestly all of the things that came out of her insecurities that drove me crazy.  She seriously called any woman who talked to Zane basically a whore (and other horrible words).  And was angry about it.  And took it out on Zane!  And never learned her lesson on that.  She was kinda hateful in that way.  And the whole awkward word vomit thing when she and her mom got nervous?  Apparently I thought it was funny before, but it just seemed contrived and unrealistic and over the top this go round.  Like those supposed autocorrect error jokes that are so not believable…I know I’m in the minority, but I just can’t suspend my disbelief.

*sigh*  You know what?  I’m going to stop.  Let’s just say that there were lots of stupid little things that bugged me.

Zane was all right.  I don’t always get what he saw in Violet, but whatever.  Their chemistry was pretty smoking though — that was one part I was sold on.

So yeah.  Sometimes a reread is just as amazing, sometimes it’s a total flop and you start to question yourself.  *shrugs*