Sarcastic, cocky, and full of opinions, Riley is also sexy personified with tattoos and biceps earned from working as a roofer all day. Not the right guy for her even if Jessica was looking for a relationship, which she is definitely not. But Jessica knows that Riley hides the burden of having to raise his younger brothers behind that grin and as she helps him get his house in order for a custody hearing, they begin to fall hard for each other, and she is forced to question what she’s hiding herself.
Jessica has never had a problem getting naked with a guy, but when it comes to showing Riley how she truly feels inside, her fear of rejection may just ruin the best thing—the best guy—to ever happen to her…
I thoroughly enjoyed True, so I was pretty excited to give Sweet a chance. I think I picked is up at the perfect time because I feel like I’ve been NA starved for a while – my elective reading is taking a hit from my busy work/school schedule. I just complete ate this book up. I started it on the subway ride home and then I was up until 2 in the morning reading. I haven’t stayed up past my bedtime to read a book in a long time, but this book definitely made me want to. I just got so caught up in Jess and Riley and their back and forth.
I want to applaud McCarthy for not turning Jess into your typical NA heroine who is either too pure to be Pink or she’s so hopelessly sex addled she can’t tell an emotion when it hits her in the face. Jess is the perfect medium of a girl who has rational doubts about relationships but can recognize when her thoughts on getting involved with someone else begin to change. She’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, with her blatant lies to her parents and the callous way she treats a boy she knows has a major crush on her, but I love her anyway. I actually completely identified with her, until the end, which I’ll get to in a minute.
I adored Riley as well. His walls come down pretty quick and he’s actually super adorable. The back and forth between him and Jess is just so witty, well timed and entertaining. I enjoyed every minute those two were on the page together. I love how concerned Riley was about his brothers, but it didn’t stop him from being a normal guy. It was also amazing how their relationship progressed – it didn’t feel rushed and it seemed to play out the way a normal relationship would start.
Which brings me to the end. Here’s the thing – I LOVE this book. It was worth staying up until 2 in the morning. And even after the fact, I still love this book. But the end made me so mad that I briefly raged about losing sleep to finish it (like I said, don’t regret it now, but in the moment I was not happy). I won’t spoil, but I have to say that I was sad that suddenly 20 pages from the end, I felt like I wasn’t reading the same book. It didn’t feel like the same refreshingly honest and level-headed characters I’d spent so much time with. So I’m exercising my right as a reader and attempting to forget that those 20 pages happened and remember all that was awesome up until that point.
If you’re a fan of True, I think you’re going to love Sweet because I think it’s really a step above its companion novel. It captivated me and had me hanging on to every word in a way that True didn’t quite achieve. Even with the ending (which actually, most people will probably love, I just have issues) I’d highly recommend this book if you want a great NA novel.
Also, make sure you check out my interview with Erin HERE!
