New Adult Romance Review "Torn" by K.A. Robinson

Torn by K.A. Robinson
New Adult Romance released 5/7/13
Atria Publishing

Author's website  |  Goodreads  |  Buy the Book on Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Chloe hasn't had the best life. With a mother who is gone more often than not, she has had to raise herself. After graduating high school, she leaves to start a new life away at West Virginia University with her best friends Amber and Logan, determined to leave her demons in the past. 

On her first day, she meets a stranger who takes her breath away at first sight. Until she met Drake, no one had ever sparked her interest. Now this tattooed and pierced bad boy is all she can think about, no matter how hard she fights it.

Falling for Drake was never part of her plans, but when it happens, things seem to do anything but fall into place.

Dealing with a tragic past, Drake has never cared about anyone else but himself and his band. But when Chloe takes the empty seat next to him in class, things start to change. Instantly drawn to her, he begins to wonder if one girl can take a cold hearted womanizer and change every part of him?

Long hidden feelings are revealed and friendships tested to the brink.

My Thoughts...

So this is going to be a pretty short review.  I have to tell you right off that I only gave this 3 stars on Goodreads, but it's probably closer to a 2.5 for me.  I think that this book had potential, the characters had potential, but for me the magic just wasn't there.  The pretty cover promised so much more than the book delivered.

Chloe is just starting college with her 2 best friends Logan and Amber.  She meets Drake on the first day.  He's tattooed and pierced, a lead singer in a bad, the whole bad boy package.  Except for one thing, he's not really all that bad.  Sure he's a player and has more than his share of one night stands with groupies, but that's really the extent of his "badness".  

There is a fine line between a love triangle that works and one that doesn't. The Logan/Chloe/Drake love triangle was a disaster from the beginning.  First of all we all know that  putting best friends together when there is another possible love interest in the picture NEVER works out.  NEVER ever ever!  At best they can remain friends, but even that is not always the case.  For me, the love triangle ruined this story.  There were other ways to create conflict that would have been more conducive to the story as a whole.   

For me Chloe wasn't really a particularly likable character, I think she had potential, but her inablilty to make a decision was annoying.  She strung both guys along for too long.  Drake had the most potential, but even his character could have been deeper in my opinion.  I did enjoy the banter between Drake and Logan though.

The overall writing isn't bad, but there were times, especially at the beginning of the book, where information was just dumped out in paragraphs.  I felt like, instead of the story being shown to me in a natural progression, I was just being "told" all the information at once to get it all out.  It's the whole "show don't tell" thing.   Even the love scenes were just okay for me.  The whole story was more like an independently published story instead of one that a publisher picked up.  Don't get me wrong I have read a lot of really good independently published stories.  This one just didn't strike me as something that was polished enough to have been published by a publishing house.

This is the 1st in a trilogy but I don't feel particularly compelled to pick up the other books.  This one wasn't a cliffhanger and she did choose in the end, so I don't feel the need to continue the story.   I don't know that I would recommend this book to friends since I really didn't enjoy it so much.  If you like a quick, not particularly deep read then you may enjoy it.

*Disclaimer:  I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the publicist in exchange for an honest review.*