Review: Complicated By You by Kenya Wright

Complicated By You
(Coveton Campus, #1)
By: Kenya Wright
Publisher: Swoon Romance
Published: Aug. 2, 2013
Genre: Erotic New Adult Romance
Rating:

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

Evie’s childhood friend Jay has always had her back. But college complicates things as Jay starts dating Evie’s roommate Cynthia. Now, Evie spends her nights trying to sleep while Jay and Cynthia go at it like rabbits a few feet away!

Evie hates feeling like a third wheel and hates wishing it was her in Jay’s arms even more. It doesn’t help that Jay won’t let Evie date or even hook up without interfering and making sure everyone on campus knows that she’s off limits.

Something has to give. Evie can’t continue pining away for Jay, and Jay can’t continue to act like he owns her when he won’t so much as touch her. And worse of all, Evie can barely look Cynthia in the eye for fear she will know just how she feels about Jay.

Then one night shifts Evie, Jay and Cynthia into an web of love and deceit, tangling their hearts and forcing one of them to come to a compromise that will change all their lives.

How far should someone go for love?

Within the first paragraph, the author sets the tone for the story. She dumps the readers right in the middle of this messy love triangle with little warning. However, it also give the reader a chance to know right then and there if this is the book for them. You see, when the reader starts this book, they are immediately thrown into a very interesting situation that involves voyeurism.

I must admit that I never had the college dorm experience. So for all I know, people hook up and have sex while their poor roommate is on the other side of the room trying to sleep. So it took me a while to get comfortable with the whole thing and in the end I still found it to be a bit messed up. Especially when you’re screwing your girlfriend with your best friend/chick you’ve been in love with since you were young, not even 5 ft away from you trying to sleep. So yeah, it’s easy to say I had some problems with Jay.

The major redeeming quality for me (aside from Kenya’s writing) is Evie. She’s a very strong person. Even when Jay approaches her to sleep with him while he’s still dating her roommate, she holds strong and doesn’t relent. Of course, there are a couple of slip ups but she doesn’t fully buckle under the pressure. She knows what she wants and she’s not going to compromise and sneak around just because that would be easier. Which of course is Jay’s logic.

I did really enjoy this story and not because it’s filled with such delicious smut. It’s the first book by Kenya that I’ve read and I must say that she has a writing style that speaks to me. She keeps the story simple and doesn’t bog it down with minute details. Even though I may not be on board with all the situations that take place in the book, I was still engrossed in the story until the very end and am curious with how it all plays out in the second book.

“Sometimes love makes you do dumb shit. Stuff that you always told yourself you would never do, that you’d never let happen. Then you fall in love, and all those limits shatter away like glass. You get cut, but you don’t feel it. All you sense is love. Only that connection keeps you breathing another day.”

Dark fantasy bestselling author Kenya Wright always knew she would be famous since the ripe old age of six when she sang the Michael Jackson thriller song in her bathroom mirror. She has tried her hand at many things from enlisting in the Navy for six years as a Persian-Farsi linguist to being a nude model at an art university.

However, writing has been the only constant love in her life.

Kenya Wright currently resides in Miami with her three amazing, overactive children, a supportive, gorgeous husband, and three cool black cats that refuse to stop sleeping on Kenya’s head at night.

 Website | Facebook | Twitter