Review: Love You Madly by Ashlee Mallory (You Again #2)


Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.


Meredith Sanders was one of the mean girls in high school, looking down on those whom she felt were beneath her and flaunting her popularity in the face of her peers. One of her victims was a quiet, computer geek named Travis Brennan and no one's forgotten the pantsing incident that involved Travis and several members of the football team acting on Meredith's orders. So, maybe it's karma when Meredith needs help finding her missing stepdaughter and the man best qualified to do so is none other than Travis.

Love You Madly is the second book in the You Again series by Ashlee Mallory and is a romantic suspense story about a former queen bee and a former geek from high school, with the former bullying the latter, who's paths cross again when she needs his expertise locating her stepdaughter. Meredith Sanders was once a mean girl in high school and it looks as if she's become a mean woman in her late twenties, an observation that Travis Brennan easily makes time and again and one that shows him that some people never change. I'm going to be honest and admit that I didn't really like Meredith for a good portion of the book because she seriously had an attitude problem. The fact that she didn't even recognize Travis shows that she never even thought twice about what she did to him in high school. I will say, though, that her dedication in trying to find her stepdaughter was surprising and showed that maybe she wasn't as big of a bitch as she was coming off as, though that dedication faltered whenever the unexpected attraction between her and Travis would rear its head. 

The love story itself was lacking that believable passion and connection that I look for in my romances. I just couldn't see these two lead characters falling for one another, especially because it didn't feel as if there was any chemistry going on. On the other hand, I quite enjoyed the mystery suspense aspect, what with Meredith's stepdaughter not being a runaway and it wasn't a simple case of kidnapping. There were more nefarious elements involved and trying to put all the pieces together to see who was behind the actual operation had my attention far longer than the back and forth of Travis and Meredith and imagining them as a couple. I did like that Meredith's willingness to put her own life at risk time and again in order to get a step closer to finding her stepdaughter. That brought her up a few notches in my eyes.

I had no clue that this book was part of a series until I was finished reading but I did get the feeling that there was more of a story regarding two of the supporting characters, Allie McBride and Sam Fratto. One quick search on Goodreads showed me that there is indeed a series and that there was a book, You Again, released last year. While I'm a stickler for reading books in a series in the correct order, I was pressed for time, no thanks to my overbooked review schedule, but I may decide to check out the first book one of these days. Rest assured that you will still be able to read this second book without too much of a problem if you have yet to read its predecessor. While the love story left me a bit wanting, the mystery and suspense made up for it, so I'm giving Love You Madly 3.5 stars out of five. ♥

Release Date: 16 June 2015

Date Read: 09 June 2015

Learn more about Ashlee Mallory here.

Pre-0rder Love You Madly on Amazon | B&N | Kobo.

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