Taking Chances By Molly McAdams.
Review by Karen Sandoval
Taking Chances was written by the amazing, and one of my favorite authors Molly McAdams.
I picked up this book on my iPod like two weeks after it's release on October of 2012 I believe. The cover and summary itself caught my attention, so I started reading it. Boy! I should've known what I was getting myself into. Not only Molly takes you in a roller coaster of emotions, but also she makes you fall in love with her characters. Especially with Harper, Brandon and Chase. I of course fell for Chase.
The story starts with Harper Jackson, a 18-year-old girl who's ready to break free from her father. After the death of her mother, Harper has pretty much lived a sheltered life, also living in a marine base hasn't helped either. She refers her father as 'sir', because she didn't really have a father-daughter relationship while growing up. So after she graduates high school, she moves thousand of miles away to San Diego, California to start college.
Harper has small frame and height, Brandon jokingly calls her an 'average size'. She's stubborn, loyal, funny, sarcastic and is really innocent. While moving in at her dorm, she meets Breanna Greyson. (Bree for short.)
As quickly as they meet they become friends. Bree helps her get a new wardrobe and takes her to her first real college party. Party in where she mets tall, blonde, blue eyes, tattoed, ladies man, Chase Greyson. (who also happens to be Bree's older brother.)
When they first meet, they really don't get along. Harper thinks that Chase is a man whore and a walking STD, but still hot.
"Leaning into my ear he harshly whispered, "Would you like to change that? I'm not up to my limit tonight yet."
Gah, why did he have to be so hot? My body was practically humming with how close he was. I leaned away and replied with the most innocent expression on my face, "Oh I'm sorry, but I don't have any STDs, I'm not your type." --Harper
See that's why Harper is my hero! I still yet to use that line though. Anyways!
Chase thinks that Harper is a little too innocent for his taste, but he stills captivated by her. After their firsts encounters and Chase's rudes comments, Harper decides that Chase is a big No-No.
While being at lunch, Harper meets the most handsome man she's ever seen, besides Chase of course. Walking in at 6 foot something, short buzzed hair, amazing hazel eyes, a bright smile, and a sweetheart attitude that could melt any girl, Brandon Taylor walks in into her life.
As they meet, Brandon and Harper take a liking for each other. Which quickly caughts Chase attention and makes him jealous. (Although, he doesn't realize it. Chase you dummy!)
He tries not to be bothered, because knows he isn't good enough for her (which of course I object to), and because Brandon is one of his best friends.
A couple of days later, Harper and Brandon start going out which totally drives Chase insane and causes lot of conflicts between the three of them.
“No. I haven’t. You dealt with it by being an ass, so let me deal with this my way. And my way doesn’t include acting like you didn’t steal my girl from me.”
“I didn’t steal Harper!”
He opened the door and took a step outside, his shaking hand gripping the outer knob. When he looked back at me, his eyes were flat and lifeless.
"You stole my entire world." --Stealing Harper.
Yeah things got really ugly. Which makes Harper frustrated because she realizes that she loves both guys. With Chase she has chemistry, passion, lust, and love. But with Brandon she has trust, security, love, a feeling of completeness and of of course passion. So yes it's a tough choices.
After months of fighting what they feel, finally Chase and Harper give into each other. (Alle-freaking-luja!) However, realizing the mistake that she made, because not only she's breaking Chase heart but she has also cheated on her boyfriend Brandon, she decides to walk away. As their lasts hours come to an end, Harper decides to say goodbye for good.
"A part of me will probably always love you too, but I can't take chances with you Chase. You'll leave me one day, and it will kill me when you do."--Harper
*Insert tears* This tugged at my heart because I have and will always be #TeamChase. He was perfect in his own little way, and yes I was pissed at Harper for breaking his heart. Yes I cursed and screamed at Harper many, many times in my head. But at the end I understood how she felt.
I mean how can she trust a guy who has never been in a relationship, and that only has one night stands with a lot of girls? I would doubt him too. Why risk a forever-kind-of love that you have, for something that you're not sure it would even last? I know I'm cruel, but that's what true life is. Taking decisions, or in this case taking chances in life.
However, this love triangle ends after 'the scene that shall not be named' happens. I won't spoil it, but someone's heart it's destroyed. When I reached chapter 14, I actually had to look back because I was pretty much sure that I had missed something. However, I realized I hadn't.
What I read in that chapter has to be the most heart breaking scene I have ever read. I actually had to stop reading, because my sight got so blurry! So I stopped reading and cried my heart out. For a moment, I did actually hated Molly!
(For the next five minutes you're not my favorite author Molly.) I was cursing at her, yelling, and calling her every name in the book. However, as I kept reading I understood what she tried to do. So I quickly forgave her, because at the end of the day, there was still a happy ever after.
Not only did Molly managed to engage the reader with her characters, but with the story itself. She takes you on a roller coasters of emotions. I cried, I laughed, I yelled, I got angry, I got depressed, but at the end of the day Molly showed me a true meaning on how life really is. And although this book had a happy ever aftter for some, for others it hadn't.
I know that this book gets tons of bad reviews, because of how everything was set up to be. I think the way Molly did it was perfect, although I still got my heart broken. However this doesn't change the fact that Taking Chances is and will always be my favorite book. It is worth reading, and surprisingly Molly made me fall in love with Chase Austin Greyson! (<----Uh stalker much? LoL!)
This was mostly because I also had a Chase Greyson in my life. And though we didn't have a happy ending, this book taught me that what you want is not always what you need. That sometimes it is worth to take a chance in life, so that we don't stay with a "What if?"
So my final decision?
Taking Chances is a
5/5 star book I love it so much!!
If you plan on reading it I recommend the following:
1. Tons of tissues (believe me you'll need them!)
2. Chocolate or wine if you prefer. Either or will be fine.
3. A huge bottle if Ibuprofen, because believe me you'll have a huge headache after all that crying.
And last but not least, I suggest you read this at night. Because girl, you don't want to cry in the middle of class or work. (It gets awkward.)
Anyways, hope y'all like this review. If you want to go check more of Molly's work you can go to her author page or like author page on Facebook. And if you decide to read this book, there's also a support group on Facebook, so that y'all don't have to suffer alone. :)
Y'all can tweet me (@karens_2469) your responses on this book, and well that's all for now!
Love y'all to the moon & back!
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