If You Stay: The Beautifully Broken Series: Book 1

If You Stay  - Courtney Cole A little spoilery but no plot twists given away.So much promise from that first chapter... Actually, it wasn't just the first chapter, Pax Tate was beautifully written it was painful to watch him go down in flames. THIS is how you write a douchebag. Because I've been reading a lot of tortured, tatted and damaged heroes who are trying so very hard to be assholes. With Pax, it was just so organic and I have to commend the writer on this. It's not easy to write something from a guy's POV and make his asshattery (is that a word?) charming. Not to mention his obsession in not turning into a p*ssy (right to the last few pages). That's tough. It's not that I wish he remained an ass throughout, I just wish he didn't turn into the heroine in the end.See whenever we shift to the heroine's POV it just goes... bad. I rationalized for Mila, made excuses to like her. I thought at first, yeah, she's a bit of a Pollyanna but she perfectly sets off Pax' jaded personality. I figured, she writes the hero so well, she can't possibly be literal with the heroine, right? She will have something redeeming right? Unfortunately, Mila just dragged Pax' distinct voice in the muddle of the predictable and the prosaic that in the end, their POVs sound like they're one person. And some might find that romantic (two become one and all that shiz), but that just sounds SAD. She makes it so easy to hate her. After unblocking the horrid past from Pax' brain through hypnosis, the therapist instructs that he shouldn't be left alone. And what does our virtuous, loving heroine do? "I won't bother you, Pax. But the doctor said you shouldn't be alone. So you do whatever you'd like. You think about things, you process it however you'd like, but I'm staying. I'M JUST GOING TO RUN INTO TOWN AND GET YOUR PRESCRIPTION FILLED AND I'LL BE RIGHT BACK." WTF? Of course something bad happened after because suddenly, we're back in Logic Land again after that WTF-ery. I won't even get into the last 20% where the usual trope of having the hero and heroine get separated only to be reunited again because it was so annoying to witness (mostly because Mila's logic is somewhere east of Mars x.x) but you know who takes the cake? Maddy.After being against the idea of Pax and Mila together the entire time, she takes Pax' side in the last 20% because he's going to help them with their financial troubles with the restaurant. Wow. Mila doesn't call her out on her shit, she was just impressed with Pax. I can't even.