Tuesday, May 5, 2015

ARC REVIEW: Lola Carlyle's 12-Step Romance by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Title: Lola Carlyle's 12-Step Romance
Author: Danielle Younge-Ullman
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Published: May 5th 2015
Format: eARC | Pages: 304
Genres: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Publisher
★★★★ (4/5) Stars!

Danielle Younge-Ullman | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Lola Carlyle is lonely, out of sorts, and in for a boring summer. So when her best friend, Sydney, calls to rave about her stay at a posh Malibu rehab and reveals that the love of Lola’s life, Wade Miller, is being admitted, she knows what she has to do. Never mind that her worst addiction is decaf cappuccino; Lola is going to rehab.

Lola arrives at Sunrise Rehab intent solely on finding Wade, saving him from himself, and—naturally—making him fall in love with her…only to discover she’s actually expected to be an addict. And get treatment. And talk about her issues with her parents, and with herself. Plus she has insane roommates, and an irritatingly attractive mentor, Adam, who’s determined to thwart her at every turn. 

Oh, and Sydney? She’s gone.

Turns out, once her pride, her defenses, and her best friend are stripped away, Lola realizes she’s actually got a lot to overcome…if she can open her heart long enough to let it happen.



I received a copy of this book, from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. In no way did this sway either my review or my rating!

I have so much to say about this book and I'm not even sure where to start or if I'll remember everything because all these thoughts and feelings are tumbling around in my head and won't stop! I guess I should say, if I'm being honest, that initially when I started it...I didn't think I was going to like it all that much. Thankfully I pushed past the very frustrating beginning because by the end I really loved this book!

The problem I had with the start of the book was that there were so many terrible characters. Lola's mom is terrible. Lola's dad is terrible. Lola's so called best friend Sydney is terrible. I don't mean terrible as in badly written. I mean they are just awful, awful people. They're all very rich and Hollywood type people so I feel like they were all very stereotypical of what I would except from the type of people they were and where they come from. Her dad ignores her and constantly forgets about her. Her mother is so annoyingly self centered and mentally abusive. And don't even get me started on Sydney. Just awful.

For a while there I was thinking that the only bright spot would be Lola herself. Well, until she got to rehab and then I was even on the fence about her. To begin with the more I thought about the fact that she, who had no addictions, was willing to get herself admitted into a rehab facility all over some guy, well I was beginning to wonder why I wanted to read this. It was a crazy idea! I soon came to realize that was just the responsible adult in me talking and had to imagine my teenage self. I mean, if it were me and I had access to some swanky rehab center and whatever celeb I had a crush on was being admitted would my teenage brain think to do something stupid like try to get myself in there? I was rash and impulsive so...probably. Once I started to accept that and really took a look at Lola and her life I started really loving it.

The weird thing is I kind of feel like Lola getting herself thrown into rehab was one of the best things that could have happened to her. She went in for the wrong and totally false reasons, but what she gained and learned about herself and her life was something that she desperately needed. Besides meeting Adam of course. I mean she plasters on this fake smile and everything is great attitude and she's never really honest with anyone, including herself. She doesn't deal with things like her parents very public and messy divorce and she lets people walk all over her and just smiles that for-the-press type of smile and feeds everyone the my life is awesome stories. In rehab she was surrounded by people who saw through it and didn't let her get away with her lies and through some tough therapy she comes out a better person.

I think the only character I ended up liking the entire time without any wavering was Adam. He obviously wasn't the guy that Lola went into rehab for, but as I got to know both guys I was extremely happy that he was the one she ended up with. He was tough but sweet. He cut her slack when he thought she needed it but he also was very hard on her and tried really hard not to let her get away with things. They really pushed each other's buttons and I was loving it each and every time. They had this really fun and sweet relationship. Plus it was basically in the forbidden zone and I'm all about the fighting the feelings because they're not supposed to be together types of relationships.

I am so glad that I ended up pushing past my initial feelings of annoyance with most of these characters and kept going. It was fun and heartbreaking. It was about self discovery and acceptance, about learning to be honest. The romance was sweet and heartwarming. I wish there was more! I definitely wasn't ready to say goodbye to Lola and Adam by the end of the book. 

Thank you to Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.



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