Review: Wanting More by Jessica Ruddick (Love on Campus #2)
Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Letting Go by Jessica Ruddick was one of my favorite reads from 2015 and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that it had spawned a series, Love on Campus. So, naturally, the second book in the series, Wanting More, was on my to-be-read once news broke about its pending release. Readers of the first book will be familiar with Joshua Davidson, one of Luke Evans's best friends and fraternity brothers who knew how to have fun and loved playing his guitar. In this sequel, Josh meets Brianna Welch, a graduate student who just happens to be his academic counselor. Twenty-one-year-old Josh has skipped one class and failed one test too many, causing him to come too close to the edge of failing out of college. Nearly twenty-three-year-old Bri can tell that Josh isn't dumb, but his lack of initiative frustrates her endlessly.
Josh and Bri's story was a really good one, with both of them doing their fair share of growing up and maturing. I loved Josh and felt that he was misunderstood, pegged as a slacker who partied too much and hopped from one girl's bed to another. He lacked direction but does that automatically make him a bad guy? Certainly not, which is why there were countless times that I found myself frustrated with Bri. Encouraging him to reach his potential is one thing, but she was blowing hot and cold, sometimes believing in him and what he can do and then shaking her head in disappointment when he doesn't meet her astronomical expectations. She had her set prejudgments from the moment they met, and she never seemed to be able to stop herself from judging him and she would come off as if he wasn't good enough.
If I based my rating on the story and on Josh alone, this would get five-plus stars hands down. But my feelings toward Bri are affecting my overall feelings. She isn't an evil character. Yes, she's got a stick up her backside for a good portion of the story, but being with someone like Josh opens her mind and heart to the possibilities that lay ahead of her if she would simply let go of her expectations and assumptions. I didn't hate her. As a matter of fact, I liked her, but I didn't love her, certainly not as much as I did Cori Elliott in Letting Go. Maybe it's because of how she treated Josh when he didn't do what she thought he should have done at the time he should have done it. She did, however, redeem herself close to the end of the book. Wanting More still gets five stars and I'm already excited to see who's up next in this series. ♥
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Read my reviews for the Love on Campus series:
Letting Go (book one) - five-plus stars - My Review
Wanting More (book two) - five stars - My Review (posted above)
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Date Read: 30 March 2016
Learn more about Jessica Ruddick.
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