Review: Wait For You - J. Lynn

Wait For You
J. Lynn
Series: Wait For You, #1
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Vomit Inducing
On Goodreads

As a diehard romantic, I am always excited by the prospect of a cheesy, wonderfully sappy, lovey-dovey novel. Regretfully, Wait for You was disappointing in every aspect. This book was, in simplest terms, cringe worthy. My copy of Wait for You was an uncorrected proof from Book Expo America, which I borrowed from Kiersten because “it looks good!”

Unfortunately, I was very very (I cannot stress the “very”s enough) wrong about this. The book contained b-e-a-u-tiful gems such as: “My tummy tumbled.” The main character, Avery Morgansten is skittish and terribly annoying. As aptly said by the blurb, she wants to forget the tragedy that changed her life (I’ll be italicizing words that emphasize said tragedy, because J. Lynn felt that was necessary to foreshadow). I promise you, dear reader, you do not need the italics – instead, within the first 20 pages what the tragedy is will come to you (Trust me. You’ll know. It’s that obvious).

But let us forgive this predictability.

Let us talk about the characters. We have Avery, who is changed by the tragedy, and because of this, she is so very different. But oh no! Not to worry! Just because her personality is such that she is completely antisocial (albeit, for good reason), a great, handsome, funny, caring, charismatic, and completely perfect boy falls in love with her. W H O A. Mind blown. Cam is flawless – he has everything from washboard abs to an understanding attitude and even to the ability to miraculously transform from a player to a monogamous boyfriend. Cam even has the ability to *gasp* wait for Avery (hence the title, Wait for You) for a relationship and sex. Congratulations, Cam, for your overwhelming self control. Cam is completely static - in the entire novel he made exactly one mistake for which he showed an appropriate amount of grief and apology.  Even minor characters such as Jacob and Brittany are ridiculously cliché – Jacob is gay and J. Lynn never lets us forget it, by having his character be the most flamboyantly homosexual guy ever while Brittany is clearly the stereotypical blonde bimbo who needs to get “laid” every other day.

This book has two redeeming aspects, the first of which is a character who rarely appears in the story but nevertheless, is real and hurt and possibly the best thing about the book. Her name is Molly and she is the only character in this book who holds others accountable for their mistakes and owns up to her own; she is sad and disappointed but above all of that, she’s fierce. The second redeeming factor is that J. Lynn tried really hard to make amusing comments such as:

"'I'm beginning to think cookies is a code word for something else.' 'Maybe it is.' He tugged on my bag again as he took a confident step back, forcing me down another step. 'And just think about it. If cookie was a code word, whatever it symbolizes, it's been in your mouth, sweetheart.'"

She really did try.
Sadly, despite these two factors, Wait for You was, in my eyes, a train wreck. Thanks for trying, J. Lynn. But next time, don’t bother. We’ll be able to guess the entire plot line based off of the first twenty pages anyway.

- Amrutha

What makes you dislike a romance?

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