Series: Hearts #1
Genre: New Adult
Publication Date: February 27th 2013
Format: Ebook submitted by author for review
Rating: 5 Stars
Synopsis:
My life has always been safe. I like it that way. I grew up in a fake society where plastic hearts rule. If our hearts are made of plastic, they can never be broken. My parents have expectations and I do everything I can to meet them, even if it means giving up on my own dreams.
Now, all I want is to be free to make my own choices.
Dane Wright is everything I have been warned to stay away from. We met one night while I was with my perfect, parent-approved boyfriend and I haven’t stopped thinking about him. I don’t want to like him. I am doing everything I can to ignore his pull, but my heart seems to want what it cannot have, what it has never had.
Can he measure up? He may think I am too good for him, but maybe he is too good for me.
Life is a series of choices and I have never been able to make my own. Until one day, when my heart decides to make a choice for me.
**Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content and language**
I don't think I have ever fallen in love with a book character faster than I did with Dane Wright in this book. I Absolutely loved Plastic hearts and I'm trying not to bounce around too much so I can type out this review!
It opens with Alex Riley sitting at a boring dinner with her parents and her boyfriend Ryan's parents as she counts down the hours until she can get back to campus at NYU. She has been dating Ryan, her childhood best friend and parents top choice for a future spouse for the last 8 months and she isn't happy. Unable to stand another minute in her parents presence her and Ryan meet up with her friend Jade at a nightclub to let off some steam because Alex comes alive when she can dance her stress away. While out on the dance floor someone begins dancing behind her and at first she thinks it's just Ryan but when she sees him sitting at their table she turns to find one sexy ass, tattooed, leather jacket wearing HOTTIE holding onto her. (Cue GenuWine) Enter Dane Wright. She feels an instant spark for him and when she tries to point out her boyfriend, Dane being the BOSS he is tells her if he really cared he wouldn't be letting some other guy dance with her. Cocky much? YES! he is VERY cocky with COCK being the operative word! Alex doesn't know what to think because for so long she has lived in her plastic fake world just doing what her parents tell her too. Ryan finally steps up to stake his claim but for Alex it is just too late. what she experienced in just that brief meeting set her on a course to finding herself in this book.
After the night at the club Alex break sup with Ryan because he never made her feel half what the sexy stranger does so they part ways with Ryan being broken. Of course Alex has a straight up betch for a mother so her mom gives her shit about it constantly but once she gets back to campus everything changes. Her first day in her new art class brings her face to face with Mr sexy stranger, Dane Wright himself. He's even cockier than he was before and that just turns her crank for him even though she tries to fight her connection to him. These two develop a friendship which turns into something more serious as the story progresses and they spend a beautiful few months growing closer and eventually falling in love. But there is a cloud hanging over their heads in the form of Alex's mother who she knows won't approve of him and will force her to make a choice. Will she follow her heart or will she listen to her mother and give Dane up? That is the big question you will be asking yourself all through this book.
I can't even tell you how good this book was accurately because it was FANTASTIC! The characters, the romance, the story, everything just worked together to make this a wonderful book to read. I have read a lot of books and I have NEVER fallen INSTANTLY in love with a guy before I read about Dane Wright! I was smitten from his first damn sentence uttered in this book! There was something about him that just calls out to me and made me love him. We find out his childhood was extremely rough on him, having to basically raise his younger brother and give up so much of his life to do so. Of course he's the recovering man whore, which is what we love in a book boyfriend but it wasn't Alex that made him change. He was already trying to get his shit together before he met her and I LOVED that aspect of the story. He didn't need to be saved because he was already taking care of himself. Everything about this character was gold. His cocky personality, his romantic side, the way he would tear up when he discussed things that he was passionate about. A guy who isn't afraid to show his emotional side is instant pantie melter material. Seriously if he were a real person and I could go back in time I would steal my virginity away from the gay guy who took it and give it to Dane! He is just that amazing!
Alex grew up with money but she lacked parental affection whereas Dane grew up without money or parental affection so these two had that in common which I think is why they worked so well together. I loved how Alex never flaunted her money in Dane's face. She let him buy things for her and to a guy that is important to them, to be able to provide for their women. It was so sweet and rewarding to watch the budding romance between these two as they got closer. Alex makes a huge decision about Dane that left me totally breathless by the time it was said and done. I did like Alex but I got really pissed at her towards the end of the book during a scene with her parents. I kept hoping she would tell her shitty parents to go fuck themselves and I couldn't understand why she allowed them to control her so thoroughly but I can understand her desperately wanting them to just notice her and care about her so she would please them in anyway possible. I get it but I still wanted to slap her in the nose with a rolled up newspaper! With all that angst though it was nice to see her finally get a damn backbone later on in the story!
The supporting characters were like a bonus side show. Her roommate Jade had some pretty funny one liners and kept things upbeat and fun with her antics. There was a particular part where Jade was being a little shady and I started to worry that she was a snake in the grass but it turned out that she was just trying to help Alex out so I relaxed after I figured that out. Dane's brother Nolan is just AMAZE-BALLS! We don't get to see much of him and I DESPERATELY want to know more about him. In just the short time we hear from him he peaks your interest enough to demand more face time. During a family dinner that Dane brings Alex to where she will meet his mother for the first time, Nolan delivers one of my favorite book lines EVER!
"What are you fuckers looking at?" he asked, looking up from his plate. "And who is this sexy bitch?"
I died! Just that alone made me crave more Nolan but what intrigued me further is the fact that Nolan is an addict and from what we know also deals drugs. Nolan and Dane don't really get along from what you can tell by just that one scene and I would love to know more about how they ended up on the outs because Dane having raised Nolan they were close at one point.
About the only thing I wish would have been different, is getting to see Dane's Perspective of the story. Being told from just Alex's POV we only got to see Dane from her eyes and it was still good but this guy made me want to crawl into his head space and get comfy. I usually don't warm up to strictly first person stories but this was so well written that you almost forget it is strictly Alex. There were enough details and conversation between the characters and it didn't feel like Alex was narrating every single thing everyone said, if that makes sense. Anyway the bottom line of this long ass review is that this book was FANTASTICALLY AMAZINGFUL! You MUST read it, I URGE! you to get you some Dane because Mrs. De Jong isn't done with this big hunk of sexy beef cake! HOLLA!
"Good morning. I thought you should know that it kind of sucked not waking up with you in my bed this morning." Loc.794
"Alex, I've never tried this with anyone. I run from things like this; I don't like getting close to people, but I can't avoid what's already there. For the first time in my life, it's easier to just feel." Loc.1079
"You feel so good; I can't believe you are giving me this," he whispered in my ear. "God baby, you feel so good." Loc. 1969
"Life inspires me. Life is unfair, unkind, and unforseeable. It knocks you down when you least expect it. When I create a sculpture, I can control it. I can create happiness even when I can't feel it. It's a way to create what life isn't giving me." Loc. 3167
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