Review: SWEET GIRL by Cristin Harber

"He'd gone from having it bad for her but surviving to having a taste and losing his damn mind."

~Cash, SWEET GIRL

SWEET GIRL by Cristin Harber first came across my radar because it was being advertised via social media as FREE. It had the feel of Jennifer Lynn Armentrout's best-selling Wait for You series and Cora Carmack's beloved Rusk University series. It was about a girl falling for her brother's best friend, a favorite trope. So to try it out for free? Okay, why not?

Nicola Hart has grown up surrounded by her brother Roman and his best friend Cash Garrison. Now, they're all in college, and Nicola is unable to date anyone without comparing them to Cash. It doesn't help that Cash and Roman are always running off her potential suitors. Nicola has always had strong feelings for Cash, but has never wanted to act upon her feelings and destroy their friendship. It's the start of a new school year, however, and this time, something is different. This time, Cash has decided to act upon the feelings threatening to consume him. But if they start dating, they'll need to keep it a secret from Roman...

For the most part, SWEET GIRL was exactly what I wanted to be. The perfect New Adult contemporary novel set at college, and the perfect amount of steam and mush. Plus, I am a serious sucker for the Falling For Your Best Friend Trope. Nicola and Cash really steal readers hearts and get them caught up in their love story. They have great friends and you start wondering whose story you'll read next. That's where the book gets you, though.

It's actually NOT a typical New Adult novel. I went in knowing it was a part of a series and assuming the other books took place at the same college with crossing stories between the friends and acquaintances. I was comparing it to series such as Wait For You, which have a lot of short novellas that bridge the books or feature stand-alone encounters with various characters. I knew nothing about the world or series from which this book came, the world of Titans.

Titans is a military romance/romantic suspense series. It revolves around the world of snipers, of undercover missions, of black ops missions. It's a pretty far cry from books that take place at a college university! Not that there's anything wrong with ANY of that. But based on the ad I'd seen, and the way the majority of the book read, I was really surprised when the book took a sharp twist near the end and went into a totally different direction. I wasn't expecting it at all. The hints earlier in the novel just seemed like typical New Adult drama, because there is ALWAYS some sort of drama. I thought I knew where SWEET GIRL was headed and I didn't. AT ALL. If I had read the Titan series first, or known more about it, I would have read SWEET GIRL different--maybe even read GARRISON'S CREED first, since it features the same couple and SWEET GIRL was its predecessor.

While I wish Harber would write more books in a university setting because she did SWEET GIRL so well and it holds up with other favorites in the genre, there's also a need for military suspense romance novels, and she has to go with where the writing takes her.

I would definitely say SWEET GIRL is worth reading, but go into it knowing it is more than just the typical New Adult University Romance Story. And that upon finishing it, you'll want to immediately start reading GARRISON'S CREED to find out what happens to the couple you've grown so attached to! (But you'll have to flip your brain in a new direction in order to fully appreciate it!)

To post a comment, you must register and login.