The Unwritten Rule: Review

Synopsis: Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don't like your best friend's boyfriend.

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah's best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more...

Details: The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott, 224 pages, 3.68 stars on Goodreads

My Thoughts: I thought this was going to be one of those light-hearted, beach-type reads. Yes, I've never read a book by Elizabeth Scott before. And yes, I quickly realized that nope, this is very, very far from one of those light-hearted, beach-type reads. The tone was dark and at points, I could really feel Sarah's intense longing, love, and lust for Ryan. 


But most of the time, I kept feeling that the dark tone wasn't entirely appropriate for the story. I've read other reviews of this book and haven't come across any that agreed with this, but it was almost like parts were melodramatic. The other thing I didn't like was how simple this book was. There wasn't much complexity - the whole book was basically Sarah loving Ryan, and Ryan loving Sarah, but Brianna also loves Ryan, and Brianna is mean to Sarah, and Brianna's parents are stupid and cruel, etc. 


The characters weren't very complex, either. Sarah let herself get walked over by Brianna over and over throughout the book, and Brianna was the typical mean rich girl with awful parents. I didn't feel like the book went very in depth with Ryan because I never quite understood why Sarah liked him so much. Yes, he's cute and smart, but why else? It wasn't so much that there weren't reasons for her loving him, but that I feel her love for him wasn't articulated so well. 


I didn't dislike this book, but it wasn't quite enjoyable, either. Normally I would give something like this two smilies, but I feel like Elizabeth Scott is an amazing author and I've heard great things about her two other books, so 3 smilies out of 5.

I Fell In Love

I thought I've fallen in love before. He was strong and sweet and sensitive, and we were young. Innocent. But he had problems - major problems - and talking to him was a drag. I had to force myself to continue conversations that were once long and winding and unrelenting in their beauty, and I tried to change him.

But it didn't work. Nothing worked.

And so at last, I was driven to put him in my closet and lock the door. He has suffocated.

He was my first real manuscript. The ones I've written between the ages 8 and 12 don't count. We, ah, we pretend they don't exist, in their 75-page glories. But we weren't made for each other. At last, I had to tell him, "I don't love you anymore!" and he accepted it.

If only my love life really worked like that. But we pretend that doesn't exist either. Trust me when I say you don't want to know the directions my love life goes in. Trust me.

Now, though, I have fallen in love again. This is all one, big, annoying metaphor for the fact that I've left Winter Child to collect dust because it simply wasn't working out and I had an urge to slaughter all my characters (even the hot one), and I began a new manuscript.

It has a working title. A bad working title, but I have to call it something. Are you ready? Don't laugh at me. No, seriously, don't laugh at me. Okay. Here goes. You're sure, right? It's not too late to scroll down a few paragraphs. All right, all right: Zombies and Other Unfortunate Circumstances.

ANYWAY we're going to forget I just told you that horrible title and move on *nervous giggle* *twitch* *twitch*.

Have you ever had to abandon a manuscript? How did you know it was time? Do you have an interesting love life? Er, I mean, why did you abandon it?