Review: Easy by Tammara Webber

Title: Easy by Tammara Webber

Published: May 25^th, 2012

Source: Purchased for Kindle

Format: eBook

Challenge(s): eBook Challenge, ABC Challenge

Grade rate: A

A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

My Review

Oh my!  What an awesome book (*you can’t see me, but I’m doing a happy dance right now*)!  I purchased a copy of Easy after seeing in many blogs and I cannot tell you how good this book is.  A gentle warning applies here:  This book is for mature young adults as it contains language and has sexual scenes.

Jacqueline was a great character.  She is obviously heartbroken and at a loss when her boyfriend of three years dumps her, but she quickly recovers from the shock and tries to go on with her life.  She goes through a very traumatic event as well and tries to do the right thing about it.  Jacqueline is smart, loyal, understanding and, at the end, brave and compassionate.

Lucas is probably one of my favorite male characters ever.  Only a strong human being can overcome so much and come out shining on the other side.  He is so considerate, tender, loving, talented, and so on and so forth (really, I can write a page about Lucas alone!).  Amazing.

Other characters are well crafted and contribute significantly to the story.  Erin, Kennedy, Dr. Heller, even Buck have their own, well defined personality.  Overall, very good characterization throughout the story.

The plot was simple and surprising at the same time.  It is easy to guess what is going on at the beginning, but then we are confronted with an even bigger twist later.  Ms. Webber is an amazing writer.  Take for instance this quote:

“Love is not the absence of logic but logic examined and recalculated heated and curved to fit inside the contours of the heart”

Awesome, right? 

I also give Ms. Webber credit for touching on many difficult topics, especially when it comes to rape.  This was done in a highly effective and tasteful manner.  Good job!

Easy is a book that will stay with me for a long time, and one that I will probably re-read many times.  PLEASE try this amazing story, you will not regret it.  For my part I plan to read Ms. Webber’s books forevermore :)

About the cover:  Very appropriate cover, with both Lucas and Jacqueline in such a tender moment.  Beautiful!

Have you read Easy?  What did you think about it?