Title: Subject to Change
Author: Alessandra Thomas
Published: June 14th, 2013
Book rating: 4 stars
Cover rating: 3 stars
Format: eARC, 300 pages
Source: InkSlinger PR and Author
Joey made her dad a deathbed promise that she would become a doctor, and dedicate herself to fighting the very cancer that took his life. There’s just one problem -three years into her pre-med classes, she's struggling to stay on top of the curve, let alone prove she's dazzling enough to earn a spot in an Ivy League medical school. In a Hail Mary move, she throws a basic Business 101 class into her semester schedule, banking on a perfect score to boost her GPA.
That is, until she’s paired for a final project with Hawk, the bartending, motorbike-riding, gorgeously bedheaded loser who falls asleep in class and communicates in one-word sentences.
Hawk does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, which sets Joey on edge – in every possible way. As they get to know each other, her urge to scream at him is curbed only by her fantasies of tearing his clothes off. Soon those fantasies become reality, and Joey realizes Hawk makes her feel more fully herself than any of the rich boys her mother and sorority sisters approve of.
But the promise to her father hangs over her head, and the harder Joey tries to succeed in her chosen career, the faster everything falls into a hopeless tailspin of bad grades, broken promises and guilt. It doesn't help to have Hawk sitting like a devil on her shoulder, insisting she should be free to live however she wants to live - like he does.
The only thing Joey knows is that her neatly organized life is crushing her - and Hawk's bad attitude might be the only thing that can save her.
Alessandra's debut novel Picture Perfect is by far one of my all time favorite NA romance novels. It was so different and I was invested in that story from the second I picked it up. So you can understand why I'd be dying to get my hands on Subject to Change. StC felt different from PP and I liked that, I feel like Joey's insecurities and problems were on a different side of the scale than Cat's were in PP, just as serious, but different. Joey is trying to become a doctor and she's drowning in her school work, barely getting by. I think Alessandra created a character a lot of girls can relate to, just like she did with her first book. Everyone has the pressures of doing what your family expects of you and the fears of somehow screwing it up and letting them down. From the moment I started reading about Joey I knew that I just really wanted her to be happy and do what she needed, not what was expected of her. How do you change your major though when it's something that your Dad, who has passed away, wanted for you? I can't say I'd have the courage to do that, imagining myself in that position is really depressing and impossible. That's a lot of pressure and guilt. But is Joey really willing to give up her own happiness just to do what she thinks her Dad wanted?
Hawk and Joey's relationship was confusing. It was a roller coaster ride. One minute the sexual tension is so high I could literally cut it with a butter knife and then the next minute they aren't interested and Joey's hates him because he's an infuriating dick face. At least an infuriating dick face that was swoon worthy. Joey has always done what's expected of her and played that perfect good girl role while Hawk has tattoos and works in a bar to get himself through college. He's almost always late and appears to not care about his life. Although Joey didn't want to admit it at first she was very judgmental towards Hawk and didn't really agree with all his choices but he was more than what met the eye. He didn't really judge her at first but she assumed from the beginning he was some dead beat guy. This infuriated me. How could she? Honestly. I know it's hard not to judge people sometimes but I always try to remind myself that you don't know what's going on in someone else's life so what right do you have. Thankfully Hawk called her out on this BS and when she finally actually gave him a chance and got to know him, she realized what a great guy he was and that he just had a complicated life. I knew though that the other shoe was going to drop at some point because it always does. The 'shoe' was no surprise to me, only because I over think things and saw what happened coming the instant she tried to fix the situation the first time. She obviously didn't and I was so irritated with her but at the same time I think it was best that they got all of it out on the table and sort of started over.
Overall this book was really enjoyable, it didn't capture me as much as Picture Perfect did, but it captured me either way. I'm looking forward to reading anything that Alessandra writes because she just has a way of capturing your attention and making you stay up until wee hours of the morning finishing a book.
Alessandra Thomas is a New Adult writer who swears she was in her twenties yesterday. Since she's not, she spends her time looking back on her college years fondly, and writing sexy stories about guys and girls falling in love and really living life for the first time. When she's not writing, you can find her with a spoonful of ice cream in one hand and the newest New Adult release in the other.
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