Book Review: Scarred by J.S. Cooper

Scarred by J.S. Cooper

Series: Scarred #1

Genre: NA Contemporary

Publication Date: March 1, 2013

Publisher: Independently Published

Format: ebook

Pages: 112

Source: Received for review from the author via NetGalley

Everyone in Jonesville thought that Bryce Evans had the perfect life in High School: he was the Mayor's son, the quarterback for the football team, the boyfriend of the head cheerleader and had a 4.1 GPA. His acceptance to Notre Dame came as no surprise but when he chose to enlist in the army instead everyone was shocked.

Lexi Jones was the quiet girl in school and kept to her small group of eccentric friends. She had no connection to any of the popular kids except for one incident on Prom Night when her path crossed with Bryce's.

When Bryce enlisted Lexi was the only one that wasn't disappointed and decided to send him anonymous letters as a way to feel connected to him. She stopped after a year because she felt there was nowhere for their relationship to go.

Fast-forward four years and Bryce is back in Jonesville and once again he and Lexi cross paths. Only he's no longer the seemingly perfect man and Lexi's no longer the quiet girl.

This time their relationship is quite different but both of them have secrets from the past and friends that threaten to ruin their chance at happiness together. (Summary from Goodreads.com)

When I saw this book on NetGalley, I immediately requested it because I'd been on the search for an NA book with a more mature romance (I guess one with more steam). Don't get me wrong, I ADORE YA, but sometimes I'm just in the mood for lots of kissing and less plot. And this book was exactly that. This review took me literally about three minutes to write and I posted it to my Goodreads account right after reading the book, unsure whether or not I was going to post it to my blog. But then I decided why not?

Basically, this was a quick read. Almost like reading a novella. It was sort of a fluffy read. For me, it was a good distraction read. There was good back story to the drama, though there weren't exactly overarching plot lines, ya know? Like, it was interesting and pretty well thought-out, but not an incredible amount of depth.

Because this book was quick and sort of fluffy, I wasn't worried about connecting to the characters. I was reading it more for entertainment than a soul-deep connection. I enjoyed reading about the characters for the most part, though, and I was rooting for them to get their happily ever afters. I'll admit that at times the characters seemed a bit too young. It felt like I was reading about 15 year olds, not people in their early-twenties.

This story could have benefited tremendously from a professional editor. I mean, the writing wasn't awful or anything, but there were some grammatical errors and some places where the writing could have simply used more.

I'm curious enough to see where the next book is headed, because if nothing else, this story line is interesting. If you're looking for something quick and distracting, if you don't care that the writing or the plot or the characters aren't completely mind-blowing, then I say go ahead and read this. I don't feel like it was a waste of time or anything. But if you're looking for the next Book Of Your Soul, I'd recommend saving this for later.