NicoleeK

Goodreads Synopsis:  Carlos Fuentes doesn't want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him in Boulder, Colorado. He wants to keep living on the edge, and carve his own path-just like Alex did. Unfortunately, his ties to a Mexican gang aren't easy to break, and he soon finds himself being set up by a drug lord.

When Alex arranges for Carlos to live with his former professor and his family to keep him from being sent to jail, Carlos feels completely out of place. He's even more thrown by his strong feelings for the professor's daughter, Kiara, who is nothing like the girls he's usually drawn to. But Carlos and Kiara soon discover that in matters of the heart, the rules of attraction overpower the social differences that conspire to keep them apart.

As the danger grows for Carlos, he's shocked to discover that it's this seemingly All-American family who can save him. But is he willing to endanger their safety for a chance at the kind of life he's never even dreamed possible?

Review:

This book was slightly better than the first book but I still didn’t love it.

Right off the bat I didn’t like Carlos, not exactly what you want when he’s our main protagonist. He was cocky and could be really annoying at times. I think I also just couldn’t imagine him as a 17 year old and kept thinking of him as Alex’s younger brother. He grew on me as the story went on though.

My favourite characters of the story were Tuck (he was freaking hilarious!) and Kiara’s family, especially her dad. These characters brought the comedic aspects to the story and I loved how welcoming and loving her whole family were. I think it was these characters that made me like this book more than the first as they were well rounded and gave the story a more realistic feel.

One thing that was also present in the last book that still annoyed me in this one is the author having her main characters get together with no build up! Kiara and Carlos were in a fake relationship for all of 2 seconds before they realised they have actual feelings for each other. When there is no build up to the relationship and it just happens out of nowhere it’s not believable.

Overall though this was much better than the first book, I especially liked it being set in Colorado instead of Chicago. That epilogue also wasn’t as cheesy, it actually made me laugh at the irony of the situation. I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads but it was actually more of a 3.5.