Book Review - The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan

1 Oct 2014

4.5 MORE THAN A HOOKUP STARS! ★★★★☆



"My mother once told me that the most important moment in my life wouldn't be when I won the National Championship or even the Super Bowl. It would be when I fell in love."

Before going in, I thought this was gonna be another college romance story of the quarterback star falling in love with the awkward out-of-place girl. And then there's the hookup rules:

"The rules: no kissing on the mouth, no staying the night, no telling anyone, and above all… No falling in love."

And my man-whore radar immediately lighted up and I was all like "Oh god not another man-whore who changes his ways for a girl. Been there, read that".



But somehow I've been proven wrong. Drew Baylor is really something else. He took me by surprise and he was not what I envisioned at all of a typical quarterback star. Having it from his POV made me LOL-ed one too many times and his first impression of Anna came out like this:

"I'm not going to say it was love at first sight. No, it was more like oh, hell-yes-please, I'll have that. With a helping of right-the-fuck-now on the side."

Well guys will be guys, no shocker there with the crudeness ;D But I wasn't entirely sold on the borderline insta-love (one of my minor pet peeves) which is why I had to deck out 0.5 stars. But otherwise, I REALLY loved the chemistry between Drew and Anna. The slow buildup was great even when Drew kept pinning for Anna but she kept holding him at arms length. And I honestly couldn't get enough of their banters!

If you thought a college jock like Drew couldn't pull out smartass witty lines, you'll be proven wrong here. He was actually one of those intelligent guy who happens to be a jock, so bonus points to you my dear Drew! :D I had a good giggling when they even have these kind of banters right after sex:

"It is my opinion that your ass is perfect. Ergo, your ass is perfect to me."
 "I cannot believe you're pulling out philosophical constructs now."
"Believe it, baby. I like debating with you."
"You realize I can use the same argument? Seeing as you've made the state of my ass a question of personal preference rather than a discussion of empirical facts."

Have I mentioned how much I love Drew? Why yes, I REALLY DO. I'd have this hot piece of smartass anyday ;)



And I really enjoyed Anna's character. She's a redhead, curvaceous heroine who has her insecurities due to being bullied back in highschool for her looks. For me, I love an imperfect heroine and I like that she isn't afraid to admit her issues. I know there are times I wanted to smack her a little for making poor decisions but I can actually understand where she's coming from. For someone who has been bullied previously, her struggles in accepting Drew's love and being all hesitant is rather justified for me.

“Don’t you understand? I felt like an impostor. I kept waiting for you to realize that you’d got it wrong. That I was the girl you were never supposed to see.”



Overall, I really enjoyed this read more than I expected to. It's been a while since I gave a NA read more than 4 stars and this one just pushed all the right buttons for me :) It had everything from swoon-worthy love to hot sex to enjoyable humor and a little dose of angst and without an annoying heroine.

I'm also definitely signing up for the next instalment of the series where Gray gets a story on his own. Who wouldn't want to read about a hot jock who can cook? I'm all over that ASAP ;) ♥

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