Review: Cross My Heart by Katie Klein

I marvel at how even the wrong choices can keep us on the right path. How the worse mistake can wind up being the best thing that ever happened to us.

This book was a wonderfully sweet contemporary read.  Parker is nothing that you expect him to be and Jaden is everything she wants you to expect!

Cross My Heart 

by Katie Klein

From the book flap

True love can blossom in unexpected places. This is Jaden pretending not to notice. . . .

Jaden McEntyre and Parker Whalen are a wrong fit from the start. Jaden is driven and focused, Harvard Med School within reach. Parker has a past-a reputation-and the rumors about his mysterious habits abound. So there's no reason why, when they're assigned to work together on a project in English, they should discover they have anything in common, or even like each other, and they definitely shouldn't be falling in love. 

As they bond over Edith Wharton's tragic novella, Ethan Frome, the "bad boy" vibe Parker plays begins to dissipate. Soon, Jaden finds herself shedding her own "good girl" image: sneaking around to be with him, confiding in him, and ultimately falling hard for this leather-wearing, motorcycle-driving loner who plays into the rebel stereotype. 

Still, Jaden can't shake the feeling that there's more to Parker than he's letting on. He's hiding something from her, and discovering the truth means reconciling the Parker she's grown to love with the person he really is. Because it's possible that his life inside the classroom-everything Jaden knows-is one, massive lie. 

CROSS MY HEART, told from Jaden's point of view, is a 76k-word/300-page contemporary romance for young adults. Bonus features include the official playlist and an interview with the author.

Jaden is your typical I need to change the world and be perfect senior in high school. Always on a mission to better the universe, she has gained the reputation of being the good girl, teacher’s pet, and one who will most likely succeed. But when she is late to English class one day and assigned to do a project with the school’s mystery bad boy Parker Whalen, everything she knows is threatened.

Ok so first off I'm going to say: DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!!!!! One minute it’s all roses and Kit Kats and the next BAMM!!!! WTF!!!! IN YOUR FACE!!!! I was so taken back by Parkers secret (and I have to say it’s a sexy secret! Rawr!!!) And I have to say that for me, that part made the book!!!! I couldn’t get enough of that scene!!! I'm not going to say what it is or what happened because you just have to read it and enjoy the ride!!! And trust me when I say that it’s a CLIMAX!!!!! I wish that there were more like those few pages because if the whole book were like it, it would have been a 5 star book for me. 

I enjoyed this book but found the main character to be a bit annoying at times.  Her need to be perfect all the time is annoying! And here is why: Jaden is pretty much me! I have lived my whole life trying to meet expectations of others and maintain perfection.  And I have to say living the list is not as fun as reading about it.  I have been as high strung as Jaden and just like her, my string broke!!!! I do like that she discovers herself and learns to actually live life! Its sad that someone so young is trying to be so old and not letting themselves be real.

I LOVE her best friend!!! She is a great example of what a best friend should be. Never thinks down of her or anything.  Everything that Jaden fears, her BFF never is.  Her parents are delightful and typical proud parents of a wonder child.  Her older siblings are delightful and typical overbearing older brothers!

The book started out slow (I could have just been sleep deprived, I have been reading far to much way to late at night lately) but I can tell you this I sure the hell didn’t intend to finish the book when I did! I just kept going and when I looked at my page counter I was almost finished and went WHAT!!! When did that happen!!!! It picks up and FAST! Its wonderful to get to know the world that Jaden lives in and everything that she knows.

This is a very insightful book and the author writes wonderfully. But I found myself wanting more, it was just lacking those deeper descriptions between Jaden and Parker and I felt that it could have been developed just slightly better.   I love how she is able to really grasp and describe someone who is so consumed with making their life perfect and laying out their future, that they don’t realize they don’t have a present.

This is a wonderful contemporary novel that is sweet (maybe just a bit too sweet) and delightful. If you have never read a contemporary novel before, try this out!

Overall rating: 4/5