Reviewer: Holly One Percent of You by Michelle Gross
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: May 5, 2019
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Alternating
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 341
Add It: Goodreads
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Make no mistakes about it. I know what I look like to others. Young, government-aided, pregnant mom. They see Lucy on my hip, and they see a mistake. I mean, why else would someone have a child so young, right? They couldn’t be more wrong. I’m too busy most days between parenting, work, and finishing up my last year of nursing school to let their judging gaze tear me down until he moves in the vacant house next to the apartments I live in.
His cold, blunt observation of us doesn’t differ from any other stranger. He doesn’t know me, but he’s already painting a picture of who he thinks I am in his mind. He judges my very round belly, Lucy’s inability to leave him alone, the bags under my eyes, and the fact that I could not care less what I look like anymore.
He’s a rude guy. Stays that way for months too. Then something happens, I’m not even sure what. Judgmental Guy decides Lucy and me — as well as baby Eli — are worth his friendship.
Turns out, Judgmental Guy isn’t too mean — okay, he kind of still is. But he graduates to Elijah. I build an unlikely friendship with him which deems it necessary for him to start smiling around me and my kids.
I’m wrong again. Elijah isn’t rude. He’s terrifying. His strange acts of kindness are unraveling me. Elijah is only my friend.
Right?
Oh, fudge. I think I’m wrong. Again.
One Percent of You by Michelle Gross is a single-mom contemporary romance. My friend Ames recommended this book to me. If not for her, based on the blurb and the first chapter, I probably wouldn’t have read it. I’m glad I did. It turned out to be really cute, though it could have used a good edit.
Elijah sort of accidentally on purpose scared a little girl in the grocery story and stole her bag of chips. Then she moved into the apartments next door to his house, and became his arch-nemesis. He’s feeling pretty judgmental about her and her obviously pregnant single-mom, but also kind of intrigued. As time goes on, Elijah comes to realize he’s been a jerk and he becomes friends with the little family.
I loved how Elijah was sort of intrigued by this little family of Hadley’s, despite his resistance to kids. The way he and Lucy, Hadley’s daughter, formed a bond was adorable. There were a lot of editing errors and I thought Hadley held onto things a little more than she should, but overall it was a great read. It was just what I was in the mood for at the time.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5