How Willa Got Her Groove Back (Willa and Finn Book 1/3 – Creative HeArts #2) (Emily McKay)

When your life feels like a bad movie, rewrite the script.

When Willa Schofer’s father comes home from a business trip with an über-famous new fiancée, Willa’s senior year blows up in paparazzi-fueled flames. Overnight, she has a new house, a new car, and a new soon-to-be stepbrother — the unbelievably hot, unbelievably arrogant, Finn McCain. Thank god he’s constantly pushing her buttons, or she might do something irresponsible. Like fall for the jerk.

Just when Willa’s decided to avoid him for, oh, ever, Finn lands in the center of her senior project team. Seriously — how hard is it to shake a guy? At least her work on the project snagged the attention of the (second) hottest guy in school. He might only be into her because of her famous stepmom, and he’s not quite as exciting as a certain annoying housemate, but at least she’s allowed to crush on the guy.

Because crushing on your annoying stepbrother? So not cool.

This Entangled Teen Crush book contains an unbelievably hot bad boy, an unbelievably famous actress, and all the drama that comes with adding both to your family. Oh, and a forbidden flirtation with a soon-to-be stepbrother.

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I have to say that I was not expecting to like this books as much as I did. Also, getting into it, I had no idea that it would be a series of its own – a.k.a., this is the first book in the Willa and Finn trilogy. So people, be warned: THIS IS NOT A STANDALONE NOVEL! Also, this is a loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice!

First of all, I really liked the writing! This book is mostly written from Willa’s POV, first person, and she’s a delight. She’s funny and sarcastic and she says and thinks the most hilarious things. Then, every now and then we get a Finn chapter, and they’re totally different because they’re told in the 3rd person. I loved this style. I’ve read a lot of books with dual POV, but none who had done like this and I really really digged it!

I loved Willa and I loved Finn. I thought that Willa was a bit quick to judge, especially when Finn was concerned. I saw a few reviews saying how rude and self absorbed Finn was, but I didn’t get that idea at all. These are 2 broken characters, who had at some point in their lives, to help their parents get out of a bad situation, and they were both forced to grow a lot faster than they should have because of it.

I totally got Willa’s reticence when meeting Mia, her dad’s new fiancée. I’ve been living with my father since I was 13 and now if he made a decision that big and didn’t tell me, I would probably be ok with it, because, you know, I’m 31… but at 17 I would have been pissed! It’s not that Willa doesn’t want her dad to be happy, of course she does, but without even a warning – when it had been them against the world for 7 years – he gets home with a new woman and a lot of changes. He might be in love, but he’s losing part of himself to this new – very new – relationship, and Willa is not OK with it. It’s bad! I found it so worrying that he wasn’t even taking into account his daughter’s feelings, or even looking at her, or asking simple stuff as “how’s school?”. I would have been beyond pissed. So, I totally got Willa, and I think it took a lot of guts to finally admit her hangups.

As for Finn, poor Finn… I just wanted to hug him and tell him that everything was going to be OK. Because it has to be absolutely terrible to grow up without trusting anyone…

My only complaint will have to be on how light this book was on the romance front. I mean, there are a few situations, but NOTHING happens. I was almost screaming at my Kindle for them to freaking kiss already!… it didn’t help =/.

I hope there’s more tension and finally some kissing with the right person on the next book… and that the parents realize they need to stop putting up a front and just be themselves.

I really liked this, I can’t wait for book 2 to come out :D.