ARC Review: Dating Down by Stefanie Lyons

Dating Down by Stefanie Lyons
Goodreads / Amazon /  
Publsihed: April 8, 2015
Review Copy Via NetGalley + Publisher

Summary 

When a good girl falls for a bad boy

She thought she loved him. She thought she could change him. She thought if she just believed in him enough, his cheating and his drugs and his lying would stop, and she'd be his and he'd be hers and they'd love each other forever.

But for Samantha Henderson, X-the boy she will not name-is trouble. He's older, edgier, bohemian . . . and when he starts paying attention to Sam, she can't resist him. Samantha's family and friends try to warn her, but still she stays with him, risking her future and everything that really matters.


As moody and vivid as it is captivating, Dating Down is told in scenes and bursts of poetry that create a story filled with hurt, healing, and hope.

DNF at 38%

What I expected: I freaking love the whole lyrical writing style and poetry (oh lord I freaking love poetry) and romance. Especially romance that shouldn’t be or has something seriously messed up about it. I mean hello? Who doesn’t love the dramatic and messed up love? You? Oh, oops. Anyways, this book was written in the lyrical style so I expected flow and magic and a lovely story progression. I expected characters who jumped in and jumped out and who I was able to connect with. I expected a story line that I’d be able to sympathize with. I expected to be rooting and cheering and booing and throwing rotten tomatoes. You know, feeling emotions other than boredom. I also expected to know what the hell as going on.

What I got: No cohesion. I’ll just tell you now, I am a huge fan of cohesion. Like, ginormous. I really like knowing what’s going on. I like knowing the plot from the book and not just from reading the summary on the goodreads page. I like a story plot. I find them useful when trying to depict one scene from the other. I believe that most humans (as well as extraterrestrial beings) also find these two things really important. Too bad, I didn’t really find much of either in this beautifully covered novel. Here’s what I’m trying to say: I love poetry. Love, love, love it. But it didn’t really work in telling this particular story. It’s not like it was bad really. A story like this (as I soon figured out) needs to have a bit more structure that poetry allowed it to have. I also wasn’t able to form a connection with any of the characters.

The whole progression of the story I found to be really slow. Which was really frustrating because I had high hopes due to the fuh-reaking gorgeous cover and amazing summary. I had high expectations, maybe too high. Maybe I quit too soon. Did I? Someone please tell me if I did. Did I quite right before it was going to get amazing?

Anyways, this one wasn’t my cup of hot chocolate.

Can you believe it's almost April? Holy crap, where did the school year go? And how have y'all's lives been? Busy? 

Do you love poetry? Have any recs for me?