Three years into college, Tressa Oliver’s life is a nonstop party. She’s skating by in her classes, and there’s no shortage of drinking, dancing, and general hell-raising. The only aspect that hasn’t been much fun: She can’t shake the toxic jerks that always seem to gravitate toward her. It will take someone totally wrong;Trent James is the classic anti–bad boy: smart, boring, and way too serious. To a wild girl like Tressa, there’s no way in hell they’re compatible—especially since Trent seems to see straight through her defenses. To set her right.When a college prank goes terribly wrong, Tressa starts to suspect that her partying ways are leading nowhere fast. Now she has to turn to the last person she ever thought she’d ask for help—and quickly discovers that there’s more to Trent than meets the eye.

Tracy’s review of Contradictions (Woodfalls Girls #3) by Tiffany King

Tressa Oliver is in her final year of college but she really doesn’t care about school or class work. How she managed to get to her senior year with passing grades is a mystery to her but she’s going with the flow. She loves to party and has a great time. She knows that she’s failing out of school but she can’t seem to make herself care a whole lot about it.

Then…tragedy strikes the college and a student dies. Tressa really doesn’t know the boy who died but she had spoken to him right before it happened. She’s deeply affected by his death and starts to change in ways that neither she nor her roommate can understand – she keeps to herself and stops partying. When she’s put on academic probation and told that Trent Lawson must tutor her she’s not thrilled.

Trent is from her home town and has never made a secret of the fact that he likes Tressa. He may be a nerd at heart but he knows that if Tressa just gets to know him she’ll see something she likes. That’s exactly what happens but Tressa thinks she may be becoming someone she doesn’t know and she’s completely confused about the change in herself. How can she be with Trent when she doesn’t even know who she is?

This was an interesting insight into college partying and the ramifications of hazing. In this case Tressa was one of the girls who always enjoyed a good prank and as hazing went  it was pretty tame. Unfortunately a boy died that night and it had a deep affect on Tressa. She wasn’t in any way responsible for the prank but I think knowing how much she was enjoying it was what served as the catalyst for her change in thinking. On top of that her academic probation was pretty humiliating. She wasn’t anxious to share her probation with her roommate so Cameo wasn’t too sympathetic. I can’t say I was a fan of Cameo as she seems pretty selfish and self-centered but I could tell that losing the closeness with her was hurtful to Tressa.

The relationship with Trent was non-existent at first. I didn’t love the way Tressa seemed to almost bully Trent, at first, but I could tell it was a defense mechanism that she utilized to distance herself as her life was in flux. Soon she was treating him as a friend and their feelings grew from there. Trent was kind and I loved the way he treated Tressa as it showed how much he cared for her.

In the end the story didn’t have a major relationship issue and that was worked for the book overall. It focused on the partnership between Tressa and Trent but mostly on Tressa’s life and how it changed over the course of the semester. I really enjoyed the book and reading about these great characters.

Rating: 3.75/4 out of 5

Reading Order:

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

Just when she thought things were going up…
Two years after a devastating breakup, Brittni Mitchell has moved on from Justin Avery—or so she tells herself. But when she returns to Seattle for her best friend’s engagement party, Brittni finds herself the victim of a disastrously timed elevator breakdown. She’s trapped with the last person she wants to face, and forced to recount the past she desperately wants to forget.

She’s going to have to look back…
When Brittni left her podunk hometown for a big city college experience at the University of Washington, hooking up with a guy like Justin Avery was not part of her plan. Between Justin’s attention-grabbing tattoos, cigarette smoking, and bad boy attitude Brittni quickly chalked him up as “Mr. Wrong.” But his charm was unrelenting, and Brittni’s decision to give Justin a chance quickly turned into the worst choice she ever made.

So that she might be able to move forward.
Now she’s stuck with Justin—literally—and the complicated web of misunderstandings that tied up the truth for two years is about to unravel.

Tracy’s review of Misunderstandings (Woodfalls Girls #2) by Tiffany King

Brittni is back in Seattle for her best friend’s engagement party when she gets into an elevator and it breaks down. This wouldn’t be too horrible if it weren’t for two things A) she hates elevators and enclosed spaces and B) she’s stuck in the elevator with her ex-boyfriend who hates her.

The pair end up talking over the hours that they’re together in the elevator and issues from their past, of course, come up. The book is told in alternating chapters from present to past and back again until later in the book (once they get out of the elevator). I’m not normally of fan of this type of storytelling but it worked for me in this case. We don’t find out what the main problem in their relationship was until later in the book (but I soon figured it out) but that too worked in the end. King kept the story going from pretty seamlessly and it flowed very well. I wasn’t ever thrown out of the story because of the switch in time periods.

I really liked Justin and Brittni together. I wish that their misunderstanding had never happened but I could see how it easily could. Communication is not a big thing in the lives of college students so the situation felt very much steeped in reality. We all know from RL and from fiction that no relationship is easy – it has to be nurtured and it takes a lot of work. The characters in this book had to learn that the hard way, unfortunately. King did great job, however, of bringing the pair together after a life-changing event and I enjoyed the book thoroughly.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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