Fearless Review

Book Review

August 5, 2013

Fearless

by: Devon Hartford

3 Stars ★★★

Blurb ~  After moving from stuffy Washington D.C. to laid back San Diego, Samantha Smith hopes to shed her troubled past and reinvent herself as a freshman at San Diego University.

Her parents are pressuring her to major in Accounting, because it’s the safe thing to do. But Samantha really wants to try something more adventurous.

When she crosses paths with a handsome tattoo-clad bad boy, her life is turned upside down, and Samantha finds herself juggling more adventure than she ever dreamed possible.

Review

ARC Given to me By Author for Honest Review

Easy to say this was pretty commonplace for the NA genre. Needless to say I enjoyed Fearless. Once I understood and was able to over look Samantha’s neurotic behavior and frequent crying fits that is. The story took on a very generic feel at times. It almost felt a bit clichéd for the age group but overall it was an interesting romance. 

The ever present tattooed man-whore becomes Sam’s teacher and she has to find a way to become her own person without her parents wants’ being an issue. Finding a passion for the arts is something new to Sam and she is able to be herself and express herself in an otherwise creative way. A way that an accounting major would never be able to accomplish. 

Sam looks forward to the anonymity of a large school. Being stigmatized throughout high school Sam can’t wait to start fresh and become whoever she is meant to be without all the pain from her past following her around. Then she meets Adonis… No really, that’s his name. Of course with a name like that, he does not disappoint and is the most well known and most wanted man on campus. Sam doesn’t understand his fascination with her. Considering she tries to let her roommate have the hunk of man-meat Sam is not accustomed to dealing with the male species.  Of course making enemies with the three most popular cheerleaders on campus doesn’t help matters. 

Art class becomes more than Sam bargained for when Adonis is the male model and he’s posing nude. Once she is able to overlook this fact she beings to appreciate art more and more. Adonis himself is actually pretty well known in the art world and he becomes her mentor/teacher on the topic.

From the female perspective I didn’t really like Adonis. Sure he was nice to look at and an amazing artist but his cocky personality was a bit over the top. When Sam walked in on him with another chick, it was more annoying than upsetting because, well, I just didn’t need to see that. 

At times Sam appears very childish but in the end of the day I think she so badly needs a ‘release’ it’s not even funny. The reason it got 3.5 stars was in part Sam’s personality and behavior but also the ending. I can take a cliff-hanger (barely) and I can take a HEA but when the characters are left confounded and confused by their own future I feel let down by everything I just read. I need some sort of conclusion at least to some of the issues involved and I just didn’t feel that. Sam, to me, is the type of character who has so much soul searching that she would be better off alone, at least for the time being. And dealing with all her emotional drama is exhausting. 

Overall I am most impressed by the author being a male. I think aside from Sam’s neurotic and overly emotional personality the story was written rather well coming from a guy. Many times even female writers have trouble capturing the opposite sex’s POV but I think Devon Hartford tackled this issue very well. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Adonis and Sam; I just hope there story doesn’t have too many more bumps in the road. 

HAPPY READING!!!