Review: Finish What You Started

Finish What You Started by Alexandra Evans
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Finish What You Started" by Alexandra Evans was in general an OK book, but I found there to be a few too many inconsistencies and annoyances for it to merit a higher rating from me. The story definitely had potential, but probably could have benefited from better editing.

My biggest problem with this book was its female lead character, Harper. I didn't find her to be especially likeable for at least the first half of the book, and while she did grow on me a bit by the end, her tendency to change her mind about things without adequate explanation or warning was quite frustrating. For example, Harper gives up her initial opposition to dating Tyler after only a single "non-date," basically because of some mild, cheesy flirting which was apparently enough for her to decide that he was a "good guy." If her only problem with dating him was that he was a professional baseball player, I might have been able to overlook her giving up so easily, but the fact that she was also putting the job that she supposedly valued in jeopardy by agreeing to date a student was just too much for me.

I really thought Harper would fight her attraction to Ty harder, but she ended up falling right into the relationship. It's a shame because there was potential for some amusing banter between them as he convinced her to change her mind, but she ended up giving in to him way too quickly and easily for that. However, what bothered me the most about their relationship is that they were both in their 30s and apparently had zero impulse control. They acted like they were teenagers! They really couldn't stand to wait a few weeks until the end of the semester to start dating? Again, considering Harper's issues with baseball players and concern for her job, I would think she would have been grateful for that time to really think about what she was doing by starting a relationship with Ty. Instead, she jumped in with both feet, and it wasn't a surprise to me when they were found out and she got fired.

Harper's reaction to losing her job was another example of her frustrating tendency to change her mind at lightning speed. At first, she got mad at Tyler for "making" her lose her job, but by later that same evening, she had already decided to be happy about it because she never really wanted to be a professor anyway; she wanted to be a writer instead. Shortly thereafter, she progressed to inviting herself to move with Ty if he were to be traded to a team in a different city. They'd been dating for, what, a couple of weeks by then? Talk about moving fast!

I was also confused about what exactly went on with Harper's parents and why she was so surprised and upset at the end of the book when her mother told her that she was the one who asked her father to leave. That version of events matches Harper's recollection from earlier in the book that her mother had "gotten tired" of being a ballplayer's wife and always having to move from city to city, so she decided to stay in Memphis with Harper when Harper's father moved on to another team, and that's why the marriage ended. However, for some reason Harper held a grudge against her father for all those years because he "abandoned" them when he left Memphis. It sounds like it was her mother's decision to stay all along, and Harper knew it. I can understand why she might be angry with her father for not making more of an effort to see her after the divorce, but shouldn't she also be angry with her mother for initiating the divorce (and therefore her father's abandonment)? Further, how could Harper not remember her dad coming back to see her in the off-season every year? I think it was mentioned that Harper was 8 when her parents split, so she wasn't so young that she wouldn't retain memories from that time.

Overall, I would probably rate this book 2.5 stars if half stars were a possibility, but I rounded up because the writing itself was generally good, and I actually did like the male lead character, Tyler (apart from his irritating tendency to refer to Harper as "Teach," even in his own mind). Unfortunately, he wasn't enough to save this book for me.

*ARC provided by the author via Xpresso Book Tours. All opinions expressed are my own.

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