I Need You (Starting Out #03) - Jane Lark

Title: I Need You (Starting Out #03)

Author: Jane Lark

Rating: 3/5

Thanks to NetGallery and HarperCollins UK, HarperImpulse for letting me receive a digital copy before the official release.

Guilt can eat away at you, but love can cut like a knife...

Wanting his best friend's girlfriend is a cliché Billy knows well - it's the tightrope he's walked for years. But now Jason and Lindy have broken up and Billy can't help but be there for the girl he's loved from afar for so long. She's hurting.

Fighting to find a road to the future, Lindy's heart hurts. She's trying to escape the truth, but Billy keeps making her face it - and it's ugly. How can she keep living when everything is made of glass and it keeps shattering?

Her one constant is Billy. Only, rebound isn't his style and when Lindy starts to see him in a different light, he just can't trust her. He's no one's second best.

Billy and Lindy. Lindy and Billy. Hmm.. I first thought I was pulled into a novel taking place in the 80's.

I Need You is a great example for how wrong my first impressions of a book can be. I didn't like Lindy - at all. The idea behind the story didn't turn out the way I hoped. I basically thought to myself: "Just read this book already and write this dumb review, so you can start a better book."

The only good thing was Billy. Why? Oh, only because he was the male protagonist and let's face it - they are the best things about books in general, especially when they're swoon-worthy and that's the case, most of the time.

Lindy was a mental wreck and heartless and... Weird. Her boyfriend Jason dumped her a few months earlier for another girl, who also already had a baby once the story started to tell Lindy's and Billy's point of view. She's still not over Jason, constantly crying and even trying to kill herself.

And then there comes Billy. Awesome and adorable Billy. I got it bad, yeah, haha. He'd always love Lindy, even when before she started dating his best friend Jason. Yes, that typical 'friend falls for the best friend's girlfriend'. But this is better. And I don't even know why. The places, the talks, everything started being really good after the first few pages. Good thing I didn't stop and decided to drop it.

Billy seemed to be the only person trying to help Lindy while all the others already gave up on her, just like she gave up on herself too. I mean, how can you not love a character like that?! Simply impossible.

At some point, believe it or not, I wasn't even annoyed by Lindy anymore. Not as much as before anyway. I felt sorry for her and understood her actions a little better.

I didn't like Nial and his crew that much. I guess that was because he stood in Billy's way and I didn't want anyone to ruin his chances. Were Nial and his crew really that imporant? Did they have to be included in this book? I don't think so, but whatever... I'll accept it. No other choice for me, is there?

So, after a while I enjoyed this book and understood the story and the idea behind it. I found myself liking it more and more. The thing is, I won't read the others in the series. I am so sorry Jane Lark, but I just don't want to. I hated Jason and I hated Rachel. Not because they made Lindy act the way she did, but they just seemed so false, so fake. Maybe they were intended to be good persons, but I still didn't like them. There's no way I want to find out about their awkward story.

I Need You is a book I had to get used to. It wasn't what I expected, and though I first thought that might be a bad thing, it turned out to be not so bad anymore. Three solid stars, mainly because of Jason and Rachel, and perhaps Lindy because she thought about Jason waaaay to much.