Blog Tour: Perfectly Messy by Lizzy Charles (Review of Effortless With You & Giveaway)

 

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Effortless With You by Lizzy Charles 

Release Date: 2013

Pagecount: 249

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Series: Effortless With You #1

Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Buy It: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Description from Goodreads:

School is out and Lucy is ready for the perfect summer: lazy days at the pool, invitations to the most exclusive parties, and romantic dates with her hot new boyfriend. That is, until she lands in trouble one too many times and her parents issue the ultimate punishment: a summer job. Suddenly, the summer can't end fast enough.

To make matters worse, the job is painting houses with Justin, the most popular, egotistical guy in school. Spending all summer with Justin might be other girls' dreams, but definitely not Lucy's. After all, Justin is cocky, annoying, and a jerk. So what if he's the most beautiful jerk Lucy's ever seen? Or that his grin makes her forget she’s mad at the world? Or that maybe, just maybe, there's more to Justin than Lucy realizes. Only one thing is certain: it won’t be the summer she wanted, but it might be exactly the one she needs.

I was kind of skeptical about this book at first. From what I could tell, this would be a cute book that I'd enjoy, but right at the beginning I kind of started to question that because the main character danced along the lines of one that would bother me the whole time. After getting used to the character and her personality, and getting into her story, I ended up enjoying Effortless With You so much.

Lucy has an attitude. Not really a snarky kickass attitude, but the kind of attitude some teenagers have that make you want to slap them. She starts out with a questionable relationship with her parents, and she's one of those mean girls who isn't outright mean, but stands by as her friend is mean. Oh, and she must have the hot I'm-only-here-to-get-in-your-pants boyfriend to top it all off. It kind of takes a bit to get to know Lucy and realize that she isn't terrible all the time. Actually, she isn't terrible at all. She just insecure and trying to do the best for herself in the way that she thinks is best--which is hard because she isn't too in tune with herself and who she is. 

And THAT is why I ended up loving Lucy. Not only does she have a magnificent character arc, but she turns out to be such an easy character to relate to. Don't get me wrong, I still wanted to slap her for her attitude problem, but by the time the story was over I actually felt like I could be friend with Lucy. You know, if she were a real person and not a fictional character. 

Justin, on the other hand, was likable from the very beginning. Yeah, he had that perfect golden boy thing about him, but he wasn't a douche. His perfect thing wasn't a cover for the A-hole he really was. He was just a super nice guy who tended to send mixed signals all the freaking time. That was my only real problem with Justin, though--that he was so clueless. And even if he wasn't clueless, it bothered me that he never really went for it with Lucy--that she had to. I LOVE that she did, but if Justin had feelings for Lucy for as long as he said he did, then he should have spoken up. Seriously. 

The storyline turned out to be a mix of Lucy's shenanigans and the happenings that lead to Lucy becoming more in tune with herself. Pretty close to everything that could go wrong for a teenage girl goes wrong for Lucy in this book. I'm not even kidding. This girl has some bad luck. I loved seeing Justin there through it all, though, even when he was sending his silly mixed signals. I especially loved watching Lucy's relationship with her mother transform. That was literally perfection, in my opinion.

And now, because I'm thinking about things going wrong for our lovely MC, I'm just going to say: ZACH PISSED ME OFF. So. Much. Not even because he was a jerkwad. Nope. Because of what he said when that thing happened at Matt's party. I honestly had to stop and say, out loud, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" when he said it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wanted to punch things at that part. Ahem. "Why are you wearing that dress if you didn't want this?" Or something to that effect. Whatever. Pissed. Me. Off.

Aaaaand end rant.

Back to the actual review. The romance was cute and sweet, but it did take a while to establish itself. More than once I wondered if Lucy would end the book single. That wouldn't have bothered me TOO MUCH, so long as she and Justin were still besties. But no worries. They work things out and they're adorable. I even loved a majority of their working up to being a couple. They're both good people and I liked the happiness. My only real problem was how long it took them to become a THING. 

Overall, I positively enjoyed this incredibly sweet story. Lizzy Charles has written a fabulous novel with an enthralling story and characters that won me over and had me rooting for them all the way through the very last page.

Perfectly Messy by Lizzy Charles 

Release Date: May 27, 2014

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Series: Effortless With You #2

Buy It: Amazon | Kobo

Description from Goodreads:

Popularity isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Justin Marshall knows this better than most. For the captain of the basketball team, small business owner, and son of Minnesota's next governor, life can get pretty overwhelming. But Justin can handle anything as long as he has Lucy, the girl who fell for the man he’s trying to be.

But for Justin and Lucy, finding time together proves challenging. Stolen kisses and whispered promises just aren't enough. That is, until scandalous photos of the couple are leaked to a press intent on creating a juicy scandal during Justin's dad's gubernatorial campaign. And when Lucy becomes fair play for the tabloids and gossip pages, Justin does the only thing he can to protect her: he breaks her heart.

For Lucy, junior year is everything she hoped it would be: new friends, second chances, and a boyfriend she can’t stop kissing. That is, until the boy she’s pretty sure she loves chooses the life his family wants for him, over her.

Now it’s up to Lucy to teach him what it really means to have everything. Because for Justin, being who everyone needs him to be just might cost him the one person he can’t live without.

When Lizzy Charles isn’t scrambling to raise her two spunky toddlers or caring for premature and sick babies as a neonatal intensive care nurse, she’s in a quiet corner writing or snuggled up with a novel and a few squares of dark chocolate. Black tea keeps her constant and she loves guacamole. She married her high school sweet heart, a heart-melting musician, so it’s no surprise she’s fallen in love with writing contemporary YA romance novels.

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