Finished by Anne Holster

​NEW ADULT ROMANCE

Publication date: 05/18/2016
Cliffhanger: No

I’m going to jump right into this review with the positives, of which there were many, in an attempt to cushion the blow of my criticisms, because the author seems like such a genuinely sweet, gracious, talented woman. So, here’s the stuff I loved about this book:

• The author really knows how to set a scene. It felt like I was right there at the Jersey Shore along with the characters.

• After a devastating, embarrassing hit to her ego from the hero, the heroine, Jess, didn’t fall apart. She was understandably upset and spent a little time grieving the loss of what “might have been”, but she picked herself up by her bootstraps and jumped back into the dating pool. She didn’t crumble and curl up into a ball to wait for death (I’m looking at you, New Moon). She didn’t let one bad experience jade her, which was nice.
• I’m not usually a fan of phonetic dialects in print, but the cartoonish Jersey dialect in this book was handled hilariously. Loved it!
• The author has a nice, natural, smooth writing voice that I think will only get better as she continues writing.    

With that said, I also had some problems with the story:

• The Finn we met in the beginning of the book was a complete douchecanoe. His reversal from man-whoring douchecanoe to respectable boyfriend material was a little swift for my liking. I didn’t see any genuine character development from him, just a flip of the switch that allowed him to behave like a normal person, apparently only because he developed feelings for Jess. I just didn’t buy it.    
• There was practically no dialogue in the book. There were some really interesting things happening that would’ve made for super-cool conversations between characters, but instead, the audience was relayed info mainly through narration, which left me feeling a little detached from the characters.
• The suspense-ish subplot was interesting, but I failed to see how it moved the romance forward at all.
• Finn and Jess barely had any romantic moments together. Sexual tension was at a minimum, which is highly unusual for a romance novel.
• The opening scene...this is definitely not a meet-cute. Jess was barely conscious, Finn barely able to stand. There was no foreplay. The fact that this resulted in anything remotely resembling pleasure for Jess, who was a virgin, is hard for me to believe.
• The ending was super abrupt. After three years of no communication, it was really that easy to move forward together? Seems suspect…
• Finn, did you REALLY not know what Tony and his dad were up to? Have you been living under a rock without mafia television shows or movies? I knew right away what was going on. The fact that he didn’t have an inkling of what was going on made Finn seem dumb (or completely unaware of his surroundings).
• I hesitate to bring this up because I am in no way a grammar/spelling Nazi. And I understand that no one is perfect. Novels are bound to contain a few typos here and there. But...there were enough errors that even I noticed—egregious stuff that spell-check wouldn’t catch (a “loan” moan instead of a “low” moan, for example). When you encounter stuff like that as a reader more than a few times, it starts to jump off the page and smack you in the face, pulling you out of an otherwise pleasant story.            

But all that being said, given the strength of the positives in the story and the writing voice, I sincerely believe future books from this author will only continue to get better and better. And while this story didn’t resonate strongly with me, I’ll be keeping an eye on this author and expect great things from her in the future.  

Full disclosure: we received an ARC from the author free of charge, and this review originally ran on Knockin’ Books last year.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
I’m sorry to say it contributes. A stint in rehab would do it some good.   

Other reading suggestions
I don’t read a ton of new adult romance, but my favorites of all time can be found on this list.

---