*Potential spoilers ahead*
Rating: 3.5
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Blurb: They said she was going to be my ruin…
Then let her ruin me.
Caleb Lockhart has everything—wealth, adoration, a brilliant future. Until a chance encounter with a siren in a red dress changes everything. Until he meets the woman he dubs Red.
Veronica Strafford’s past makes it hard for her to trust anyone. Now, kicked out of her apartment, she reluctantly accepts Caleb’s offer for a place to stay.
Caleb feels intensely drawn to Veronica. And, for the first time in his life, he really wants something—someone. Too bad Veronica’s heart might just be the one thing Caleb can’t win.
How I felt in one line:
Sadly, Chasing Red didn’t live up to my mental hype and maybe it was the teenage part of me that hyped it up.
Likes:
- I loved parts of Caleb’s character still because I’m a sucker for guys that love their families (kinda).
- The character dynamics were still the same as the Wattpad version and I enjoyed Caleb and Veronica’s banter. It provided a good idea of the characterization of the characters, but not enough.
- Kara, Veronica’s new friend, was spunky and funny and brought a little bit of life to the book.
Dislikes:
- A lot just happened too fast for me. It felt like the book moved almost too quickly and there was no time for me to register what was going on.
- I found myself asking “was this the book that I read on Wattpad?” and questioning everyone’s motivations. What was Kara’s purpose? Was she the supportive best friend that the heroine needed to make her more human?
- I wanted more backstory for Veronica and a better development of her character. She felt flat to me. I wanted to know more about her, more about her thoughts and the actions for why she did certain things.
- There was no climax of the entire story. Sure, a little drama happened with Veronica moving out of the apartment because of Caleb spending the night at his childhood friends’ home–I get that he made a mistake, but that doesn’t warrant her moving out of the house and into the home of a friend that she just met.
- Beatrice-Rose–I actually had to go and find her name because I forgot it–was a character that I was anticipating being more vindictive and shallow than she was in the Wattpad version (also I was hoping that she appeared earlier), and that she would have a lot more depth than just being a girl that was kind of obsessed with her childhood friend.
- Since Veronica moving out seemed to be the climax of the book I imagined that there would be more? Higher stakes? But there wasn’t. I got to the end of the book and was surprised because that was it? That’s all that the author had to offer?
- Splitting the entire novel into two parts was a bad decision to me. There is enough content of the book for it to be one entire novel even if you take a lot of the elements out.
Would I Read This Again?
Ehhh, probably not. I liked the book and I was happy that it was published, but it didn’t live up to my mental expectations and made me feel a bit like I was in high school. It’s probably going to sit in my Kindle library for a while.
P.S.: It may feel like I hate this book, but I sincerely don’t. There are some pacing problems and character development that need working on, but having read the rough draft on Wattpad, I knew the gist of what was going to happen and so I expected a lot more when I heard that it was going to be published. I expected new twists and turns, new characters, more backstory. I loved the book on Wattpad and I like it now (if only for nostalgia’s sake), but I wouldn’t actually spend money on this book.
kannaree.com 