Review: #Awestruck

#Awestruck by Sariah Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Overall, I really enjoyed this story; in fact, I'd say that it was my favorite book of the series so far. The main characters were both pretty likeable, on their own and as a couple, and the secondary characters were also pretty great. (IMO, Charlotte and Rory almost stole the show in a couple of places. Charlotte's too young unless Ms. Wilson is willing to do a time jump, but Rory would be a great character to feature in a future book. It seemed like there was more going on with her than she was willing to admit!) I'm not the biggest fan of sports-themed books, but Ms. Wilson managed to make this story engaging enough to maintain my interest throughout.

That being said, there were a few things that bothered me about the book. Most importantly, it seemed a bit odd that Ashton's family pushed so hard for her to date Evan given his role in what had happened to her in high school. When Evan and Ashton met again as adults, he explained to her that his role in the high school bullying wasn't exactly what Ashton thought it had been, but it seemed like Ashton's parents and sisters knew his side of the story long before she did. Otherwise, why would they have been so convinced that Ashton could trust him? Was Aubrey or another family member in touch with Evan in the years since he graduated? If so, why didn't they ever share his version of events with Ashton? She might not have held on to her grudge for so long if she had known Evan's side of things. (Of course, in that case the entire story might not have happened since Ashton's initial motivation in spending time with Evan was revenge, so maybe I shouldn't pull at that thread.)

Also, it's a minor point but the timeline of events since high school seemed somewhat off to me. For example, based on the author's explanation of Aubrey's life since high school, I think Charlotte should have been younger than 4. Given that Aubrey was organizing her and Evan's 10-year high school reunion while this story was taking place, she should have been about 28 years old. She met her husband in law school and got married as soon as she graduated, when Aubrey would have been about 25. The author says that Aubrey got pregnant with Charlotte immediately after getting married, which seems like it should only have been about 3 years ago based on this sequence of events. If all of that is true, then either they were having their 10-year reunion 2 years late (when Aubrey and Evan would have been about 30), or Charlotte should only have been about 2 years old, not 4. (Charlotte was vastly more entertaining as a 4-year-old than she would have been at 2, so I'm not complaining about the outcome of all of this. I'm just not sure the math makes sense.)

*ARC provided by the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

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