Review: Driving Her Crazy by Kira Archer (Crazy Love #1)
Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Cherice Buchanan Debusshere knows all about family pressure. Her parents and each of her siblings are successful and respected, living up to the Debusshere name. Cherice her own dream, but she can't really do anything about it, knowing that her parents will chalk it up to yet another of the long line of disappointments she's thrown their way. When she misses her flight to New York, she's sure her mother will add it to her list of grievances when it comes to Cherice. Her only option left is to drive from North Carolina to New York if she hopes to get there in time for her sister's wedding. The last rental car has been given to Nathaniel Oserkowski, who offers to share the ride with her. Thus begins a misadventure that has a guy nicknamed Oz (but whom she insists upon calling Nathaniel) and a girl named Cherice (but whom he insists upon nicknaming Cher) getting on each other's nerves before wanting to get into each other's pants.
Driving Her Crazy is the first novel in the Crazy Love series from author Kira Archer and is a book that more than lives up to its title (though the lead characters both basically drove each other to madness). Hilarity ensues when Cherice "Cher" Buchanan Debusshere and Nathaniel "Oz" Oserkowski find themselves unable to get any flights out of North Carolina and have to drive to New York. Oz offers to let Cher ride with him and the confined space they end up sharing has them wanting to tear their own (and probably each other's) hair out in frustration. Cher comes off as a pampered princess used to privilege and all the good things money has to offer, while Oz is more blue collar than white collar, what with being a mechanic, janitor, and someone with a paper route. But amidst their glaring differences are the more subtle but much more important similarities that they have, if only they'd take the time to actually notice.
I admit that I didn't really find a lot about Cher to be endearing for a good part of the book, and Oz certainly went a bit overboard at times to put Cher in her place and prove her wrong, but as the story went on, it was pretty clear that there was a great deal more to Cher and Oz than meets the eye and I loved that these two surprised me to the point that I couldn't help but fall in love with them and their tale. Many of us have been stuck in a car for those long road trips, and it's funny how the trips seem to fly by when we like the people we're with and we're enjoying ourselves but how they seem to go on forever when we're trapped with someone or a group we'd rather leave on the side of the road. Just like me, Cher and Oz had already made up their minds very early on about the person they were in the car with, and the miscommunication and misunderstandings led to irritation and dislike but definitely didn't stay that way.
It's difficult to not imagine this book as a romantic comedy flick in my head, picturing Cher and Oz bantering and bickering while trying not to pay too much attention to the attraction that's very mutual. While there were supporting characters in the story, the most notable ones being Cher's twin brother Elliott and Oz's younger sister Lena and her son Tyler, this really was Cher and Oz's tale of love and laughs to tell. Your focus is solely on them and they command your attention, with a heck of a lot humor and heart and just a dash of tugging at your heartstrings when their own preconceptions and insecurities get the better of them. For the first few chapters, I had already made up my mind that I was too pissed at Cher to enjoy the rest of the story, but I'm glad she proved me wrong. This was a book that left me smiling and sighing in satisfaction. Kira Archer is an author after my own heart and Driving Her Crazy gets five stars. ♥
Release Date: 17 August 2015
Date Read: 12 August 2014
Learn more about Kira Archer here.
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