Author: Haven Francis
Genre/Age: Romance/YA
Series: Carver High Novel (Book Two)
Publisher: Self-published
Format: ebook via YABound
Rating: ✺✺✺
Links: Goodreads
Synopsis: Sometimes the best version of yourself is the one you can only see through someone else’s eyes. But what happens when those eyes belong to the one person you don’t want them to?
Thanks to her father’s affair and her parent’s resulting separation, Presley Knox has been ripped from her life in California and dropped into an abyss in the middle of Georgia. With her alternative looks and creative spirit, trying to find her place in a sea of jocks and cheerleaders is hard, but doing it while living with her cousin who belittles her every chance she gets is almost impossible. There is one person in Carver who embodies everything Presley hates about her new life and she can’t help but use him as the outlet for all of her frustrations.
Nash Carter’s bad boy image isn’t a façade; he drinks too much, sleeps around, makes his money street racing and has zero plans for his future beyond living a rowdy life with his likeminded dad and older brother. His good looks, cut body and popularity have always gotten him anything and anyone he’s ever wanted. That is until Presley Knox showed up at Carver High.
Nash knows to steer clear of Presley and her sharp tongue that’s always aimed at him. But that becomes impossible when they’re paired together for a semester-long photography assignment that promises to push them into the depths of each other’s personal lives. In order to survive the semester, Nash implements a new strategy: get the one girl who’s immune to his charm to change her mind about him.
With Nash’s unwavering pursuit to know everything about her, and with the nagging voice inside her head that’s insisting there’s more to him than she’s letting herself see, Presley struggles to keep her wall firmly in place. When it slowly begins to crumble, Nash wonders if he should have kept his distance after all because the girl that’s been hiding under Presley’s hard shell is breaking his heart wide open.
Nash has been a lot of things to a lot of girls, but Presley’s the only one he’s ever wanted to shelter and protect. But how is he going to do that when he knows she’s right to keep their friendship a secret in order to protect herself from him?
Due to mature language and content, A Son of Carver is intended for readers 17+.
**Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for honest review.**
Overall, I found A Son of Carver to be a good read. I laughed and smiled, gasped a few times, and had a feeling of dread through the parts of turmoil. It kept my attention well enough to finish in one day and I was never bored by the story. For the most part, I enjoyed it. But with those happy feelings also came several annoyances.
With such a long and detailed synopsis (too long, in my opinion), there isn't very much else to tell about this book, without giving everything away. Nash and Presley are partnered in a photography class and have to work on a project together throughout the semester. This part of the story actually makes sense because these two would likely never have come together without being forced. I would have preferred to see the teacher require them to be partners rather than this back-and-forth "You drop the class!" "No, YOU drop the class!" nonsense. But in the end, they have to remain partners.
I found Nash to be a pretty likable guy. Sure, he is a womanizer and full of himself, but a lot of teenage boys are. Watching him mature throughout the story was nice to see. Granted, I haven't read the first book, so I didn't begin the story already hating him like many others did.
With Presley, I had a bit of trouble understanding her. That might have been because her immaturity outweighed her personality for me. The hot-and-cold way she behaved toward Nash was obnoxious. One way behind closed doors and another with her friends. It wasn't fair to Nash, no matter how the story was spun. Her behavior made my head spin.
And the fact that she let herself become so enamored with Angel (the other guy in her love life) to the point where she was physically in pain while allowing him to grope her just didn't sit well with me. She had no problem putting Nash in his place but allowed her boyfriend to go too far and kept her mouth shut when her cousin, Jolee, was cruel to her. I just couldn't understand Presley's actions most of the time.
I won't even go into the terrible idea of letting a teenage girl move into her boyfriend's home, especially with two other grown males present. And their sudden decision to confront Jolee and her mother was strange, at best. Hearing boys threatening to hit a girl leaves me with a bitter aftertaste. But why Presley's mother didn't just find an apartment for her and her daughter to avoid all of this mess, I'll never understand. *sigh*
I would have liked to see more focus on the photography project, as that was the entire reason for these two characters coming together, but we only get a few mentions here and there of taking photos until the project is revealed at the end.
A nice love story with growth of characters throughout. I might consider reading the first book of the series and subsequent books, as well. 3 suns!
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