Review of My Paper Heart

Synopsis - from goodreads

There are worse things in life than failing out of college- such as having your parents receive the letter that you’ve been kicked out. Now to appease her parents self-proclaimed sorority princess Libby Gentry is packing up her Prada bag and heading to work for her great aunt’s antique store in tiny Elsbury, Louisiana. She’s pretty sure she can tackle the swamp and deal with her great aunt and tom boy of a little cousin, but what she doesn’t know is if she can handle the local town playboy, Blaine Crabtree.

As Libby's feelings for Blaine grow, so does her need for acceptance and all of the insecurities she has kept inside are coming out. She may have survived the Louisiana swamp, but she may not survive Blaine's reluctance to say the 'L' word. When Blaine finally commits to the three words Libby’s been waiting for, she only hopes they haven’t come too late.

**This book does contain some mild language and sexual content. It is meant for upper YA readers**

Review

Having enjoyed reading this authors YA book - How to Date an Alien - I was excited to see how she would do with a contemporary NA story. I think the author did an excellent job with the more mature storyline and as a result My Paper Heart is a great example of an NA contemporary romance.

I liked how in this book the characters aren’t perfect; they don’t live perfect lives and things don’t always go the way they wish. The book starts with the main character being kicked out of college and being sent to live with her great aunt in Louisiana by her ashamed parents. In my eyes Libby is a perfect main character, she starts off as a nice girl but she is a little spoiled and somewhat shallow and during the book you actually see her grow up and become an adult. In my opinion this is what New Adult books are all about.

This book has a brilliant romantic element to it, the main characters are both having their first ever true serious relationship and we get to see all the drama that comes with that. From the worries and insecurities to meaningful sex and those all-important three words. Like many books I have read this has the - guy is a player but changes his ways after seeing the heroine only once aspect to it. This can annoy me slightly but I thought this book did it well and it made sense as to why Blaine chose to change his ways for someone he barely knew.

Libby is such a complex character, she is a rich college dropout and everyone just sees her as a dumb blonde but she is so much more than that. She has a longing to fit in, look perfect and to have everyone like her – something I think we can all relate to. It just takes people to treat her as if she is perfect the way she is for her to finally discover herself.

I really enjoyed this story of finding love and discovering who you truly are. I liked the ending so I was quite surprised to see that there will be a second book, I am interested to see what will happen next for these characters as it seems their story is not yet over.