Review: True by Erin McCarthy.

Rowena’s review of True (True Believers, Book 1) by Erin McCarthy.

Hero: Tyler Mann
Heroine: Rory Macintosh

When Rory Macintosh’s roommates find out that their studious and shy friend has never been with a guy, they decide that, as an act of kindness they’ll help her lose her virginity by hiring confident, tattooed bad boy Tyler Mann to do the job…unbeknownst to Rory.

Tyler knows he’s not good enough for Rory. She’s smart, doctor smart, while he’s barely scraping by at his EMT program, hoping to pull his younger brothers out of the hell their druggy mother has left them in. But he can’t resist taking up her roommates on an opportunity to get to know her better. There’s something about her honesty that keeps him coming back when he knows he shouldn’t…

Torn between common sense and desire, the two find themselves caught up in a passionate relationship. But when Tyler’s broken family threatens to destroy his future, and hers, Rory will need to decide whether to cut her ties to his risky world or follow her heart, no matter what the cost…

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when opening this book, since I’ve heard conflicting things about this book.  Some really liked it, some couldn’t get into it and some didn’t like it.  I was a little slow to warm up to getting this book read because of those conflicting reports but now that I’ve gone ahead and read it for myself, I wasn’t too disappointed in the reading experience.

This book follows Rory and Tyler on their journeys to finding themselves and coming together as a couple.  They’re both in college and they’re both going through different issues but I really liked the both of them, together.  I didn’t not like them apart but I thought that together, they were pretty fantastic.

It was kind of heartbreaking, getting to know Tyler and seeing into his background.  Seeing the person that he was and the issues that he faced on a daily basis. To come out of all of that as a genuinely good person, I really liked.  In fact, Tyler was probably my favorite part of this entire book.  His life was raw and it was real and he wasn’t perfect but he made do with what he had and he tried every day to make life a little better for his brothers, who were stuck with his no-good mother.  I really liked that Rory embraced Tyler’s family and wanted to do her part in helping U and Easton have a bit more sunshine then they were used to.

As much as I liked this book, there were a few things that rubbed me the wrong way.  Like, when we first meet Rory- she’s almost raped while she’s waiting for her two friends to finish getting their bang on with their friends (Tyler was one of the guys that was getting laid by Rory’s friend and roommate which bothered some of my friends but not me.) and when Tyler steps in to save Rory, he tells the friends what happened and they get all pissed off on Rory’s behalf (as they should) but when Rory wants to go home, they don’t go with her.  They’re like, “Oh, well I’m going to crash here but you go home and get some rest.”  WTF? Rory is visibly still shaken up about what happened and they’re sending her home…ALONE? What’s wrong with them?  Over the course of the book, there’s no denying that her friends love her and want what’s best for her but they’re completely selfish and it was hard for me to like them.  Which should be interesting, considering the next book in this series is Jessica’s book…with Tyler’s brother? Interesting, indeed.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but it didn’t come without it’s share of frustrations. I’m not at all mad that I read this book but it’s not my favorite read either.  Still, I liked it enough to still be interested in reading the next book.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

This book is available from InterMix. You can buy it here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

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