November 25, 2015 – My Tiny Obsessions

groundedbyyou

Lights, camera, and passions flare when a small town boy becomes Hollywood’s newest heartthrob. But as the lines between reality and fiction blur, can he still find a way to capture the heart of the girl who got away?

Carter Samuel Groveson.

His name is on the lips of every woman in the country. An actor plucked from obscurity to star in the most anticipated movie of the century, everyone wants a piece of him.
Except her.

Millie St. John isn’t ready to settle down. Not for her family and definitely not for a man. A year ago, Millie ran as far and fast away from Sam as she could because she didn’t want to risk ruining their friendship.

Now he has reappeared in her life to rekindle that friendship as a way to keep him tethered to reality, and she’s unable to say no. But forces are gathering to catapult Sam’s star to success, and there’s no room left in that plan for Millie.

In this high stakes game of second chance romance, everyone is watching.

This is a full-length, standalone new adult contemporary romance novel intended for readers 18+.

The Willoughby Inn Love Story Collection:
Where My Heart Breaks
Grounded By You

As you probably guessed by my rating of this book, it won’t make my favorites list, not by a long shot. Where to even start?! I guess by the positives, right?

I will try to keep this SPOILER free, although there are a couple of points of the plot that I’ll mention because I really need to, ok?

I liked the writing, it flows easily and fast, and it also conveys perfectly well the emotions, sceneries, situations, etc. Unfortunately, these are the things I had a huge problem with.

Let me tell you a bit about the main characters, ok? So, first of all we have Millie, typical high-society girl, with parents that controlled her whole life to the second, and that now, at the age of 23, she decides that she wants to follow her (very recent) dream of being an artist. The problem with Millie, well, one of them at least, is that she’s super super weak. This is a girl who’s afraid of commitment like no other, and that at the first sign of something not going her way, she takes 100 steps back – she does this with Sam (more than once) and she does it with her “dream”, and this really bothered me. Not because she chose safety, but by the way it happened.

Then we have Sam, who by all accounts is a really great guy, until he decided to put his career in front of his integrity and then I wanted to smash his head against the wall. *I’m sorry, I swear I’m not a violent person*

Ok, let’s play a game, yes? Think of all the clichés that can play out involving a Hollywood star and a “normal” girl. Got it?! Yeah, it’s probably in this novel. I swear I was rolling my eyes for most of the time from a certain point on…

Ok, I’ll drop SPOILERS now, if you don’t want to know, don’t look!

I’m not doubting that Hollywood involves a lot of politics, and that new stars find themselves under an immense pressure, ok? But Sam agreeing to break up with Millie and not tell her everything, and then the way he did it was horrible. The things she then decided to say to him, even worst.

Right after their breakup, Millie gives up on her art. Yes, her “dream”, a thing that she had decided for almost a year before Sam came into her life again. She just GIVES UP!!!! – I told you she’s weak, right?

By the way, before the breakup, they “decide” (not actually thinking much) to have sex during her parent’s party, and they do it without a condom. When that happened I was like “OMFG, she’s gonna get pregnant *eye roll*“. Do you want to guess what happens next?! Yep, she gets pregnant!!!!

Sam, being the confused little boy that apparently he is, actually thinks that he’s catching feelings for his co-star, so when he decides that they need to practice the kiss for the movie, he decides that said practice should be done in public… *facepalm*

Then, obviously, she decides not to tell him about the baby. First because she’s mad. Then he says he loves her, she goes to his hotel, they spend the night together and she leaves him, again, and still she doesn’t tell him that she’s pregnant, because it’s not “the right moment for him”. WTF????!!! Oh, by the way, by then she had decided to keep it.

Sam obviously runs after Millie to NYC, and as soon as he gets there, she decides it’s finally time to tell him… really? The guy is super happy, obviously, he has loved her for more than a year, and he always wanted a family and so on. Then within a day they manage to turn the publicity in their favor, even though the press believed him to be in a relationship with his co-star. And then they are in full-on family style.

It really bothered me that the only reason that their relationship comes out is because there’s a baby involved. That’s the only reason the baby happens, I tell you. It’s sad and frustrating. The relationship on itself should be more than enough.

Also, it irked me to no end that these two people who had been best friends for a whole summer, that were together 24/7, that knew each other so well, doubted each other’s motivations at each step.

Last, but not least, their reactions and attitudes seemed more fitting of younger characters. I swear that the angst was at YA level, with something serious lacking in both their personalities.