I'm in a book-tearing-apart kind of mood. And it's all The Infinite Moment of Us's fault. I want to paste every single line of the synopsis down into this review and state every single reason for why it isn't true. But I am mature. So I will not do that. Though I am, at this very moment, fantasizing on doing that very thing.

I WILL CARRY ON AS IF THAT THOUGHT HAS NOT ENTERED MY MIND AT ALL.

Let's start with the length. Normally, if the writing is good - length is not an issue for me at all. But this one was just ridiculous. It was like a hundred pages before anything even remotely related to the romance happened. And while that's okay in a lot of books, it is NOT okay when that's what the entire storyline is based around. I mean, really.

When something finally did happen on that front, it was like an instantaneous kind of love. No feelings developed, nothing. Suddenly they're just falling all over each other in love, with none of it being shown. All we got was a lot of telling, which as you all know is the worst thing you can do in a fictional relationship. Words mean little to nothing, actions mean everything. And their actions were screaming "we're not ready for a relationship".

I didn't think that Wren and Charlie were good for each other at all. They didn't communicate enough, and their relationship really focused more of the physical than the mental. Why couldn't they talk to each other? Really. Their relationship was... gah I promised I wouldn't do this, but here!

Sexy, romantic, and oh-so-true to life, this is an unforgettable look at first love from one of young adult fiction’s greatest writers.

<--- You read that, right? Well, none of those things is really true. I mean, I can't speak for the writer, because I've enjoyed some of her other books.

But oh-so-true-to-life? No. Just no. If anything, it was nothing like real life. (It wasn't romantic, either. But we're skipping over that for reasons.) In reality, teenage relationships don't work like the one in this book, unless both people are irrevocably screwed up and over, with no chance of redemption. This relationship read more like a new adult book - and we all know how those go. There are some true diamonds, but most NA is all sex.

And in reality, that is not what an entire teenage relationship revolves around. Teens talk and hang out too. Not to mention the fact that the ending was completely too-good-to-be-true. Real life doesn't work out like that.

All in all, The Infinite Moment of Us just wasn't for me. I didn't like the characters all that much, the ending was a grotesque parody of life, and really the romance was just ridiculous. I was conned into reading it by the pretty cover. Can you really blame me?

I'm taking part in a challenge on Goodreads to read more "real" books this year instead of just reading ebooks.

In January I read 8!

I received a free digital copy of this novel from Netgalley on behalf of Amulet Books in exchange for a fair review 

Wren has been trying to live up to the expectations of her parents for years. They want her to be the perfect young lady. They tell her how to dress, what to like, how to act, how to speak, what college to go to and what to major in. They even bribed her with a car if she went through high school without a boyfriend. She just wants to be free damnit!

Charlie is a shy boy that was seriously neglected as a child and bounced around in foster homes for most of his life. He just wants someone to love him and treat him nicely. He currently has some pretty nice foster parents and a foster brother. He has crushed on Wren for a long time and on the last day of school, he waves to her and amazingly she waves back.

Wren has always kinda liked Charlie but because of the deal with her parents she never acted on it. Well at a graduation party, all bets are off and she is free to date.

Thus begins their summer romance and that’s the entire plot of the book. Really, it’s just a story about their romance with minor bumps in the road with and ending that actually upsets me, because of what Charlie gives up.

I did not like this book. The writing was immature and most of the characters were extremely unlikeable.

Wren is trying to form her own life and discover who she is, so she decides to defer her admission to Emory to do volunteer work in Guatemala for a year. Great right? Except that her mom works at Emory, her mom got her a special parking pass for Emory, paid the fees already, yet Wren managed to keep the deferment secret for months. I find that highly unlikely.

Wren is also unbelievably whiny, selfish and needy. She constantly whines about how much time Charlie spends with his family or working. And while he is working his ass off to help his foster dad’s struggling business or helping his disabled little foster brother, she is lounging her in her best friend’s rich boyfriend’s pool, complaining about how she doesn’t get to spend much time with him. Twice in the book she throws a fit and gives Charlie the silent treatment (pretty much dumps him) over small misunderstandings or something he has no real control over.

Charlie is so sweet and nice but more than once I wanted to tell him to man up and stand up for himself. That’s about it to his character. He’s not a bad character, I liked him well enough but he let Wren and his ex Starrla walk all over him.

Starrla, wow, what a ridiculous character. She is a girl that Charlie has known most of his life, who also comes from a difficult family situation. She is pretty much a crazy bitch character that “hangs out with the black kids” (yes. That’s from the book). She took Charlie’s virginity when they were 12 and has used him as a random hookup ever since. She dates lots of other people and doesn’t want to be exclusive with Charlie, though she hates it when Charlie tries to date other girls. She harasses Wren and leaves nasty notes on her car. She manipulates Charlie and her dramatic scene at the end is so unnecessary and over the top (not to mention really hard to swallow).

Tessa (Wren’s BFF) is a silly trope that’s ditzy and outspoken. Her boyfriend takes them to a gun store/shooting range and she says something like “oh it’s a store too? Are there shoes?” ugh eye roll. Wren’s parents are horrible, once her father tells her to lower her voice because women shouldn’t be shrill (what the FRICK).

Overall, there was not much I actually enjoyed about this book. Such a waste of a beautiful cover!

Oh and there are detailed sex scenes in this book and a part about sending sexy pics on their phones. So not appropriate for a young adult book. The author writes this rather obnoxious note in the book (at least in my copy) about how the sex scenes are realistic but realistic does equal appropriate. Not recommended for people under 17.

I suddenly remembered why I tend to avoid NA. 

Still a decent book, at least at the beginning, at the end it just got a bit well bleh.

I liked the main girl, at the beginning when she was fighting against her parents and what they wanted. I was really cheering for her and hoping her parents would understand.

This all changed when she met our main boy. OK, not immediately but quite soon she expected him to drop everything and stay with her. She kept pushing her stuff on him. And what did he do? Oh nothing, he just went along with it.
It was quite a personality switch for both characters, and I found that a real shame. 

The romance part felt a bit to instant and fast. I know there is the whole concept of love at first sight, but this was a bit too much of that. 

Also the sex scenes, and especially the fact she shared nice details such as the positions or where they had sex, and how often were just a bit too big of a NOPE.

In overall, a decent book but with quite a few things wrong.