The Vincent Boys

(Review originally posted here at The Book Barbies.)

Oh, where to even start with this book?

If I read past the first 5 pages of a book, it is extremely unlikely that I will DNF it. I am eternally hopeful that things will improve. But I can 100% guarantee that I would have set this one down 80 pages in. I came this close to doing so, and the only thing that kept me going was that I was reading it for the Spring into Summer readalong. So I pushed through.

It didn't get better. In fact, it just kept getting worse. The writing was stilted and repetitive through the entire book. There was very little chemistry between the leads. I did not like a single one of the characters, even the minor ones.

First, there's Ashton. Ashton used to be a secret Bad Girl. She would sneak out at night and do bad things like stuffing frogs into mailboxes with Beau. But then Sawyer asked her out, and she became a Good Girl, squishing those Bad Girl urges down, down, down. Somehow, this means that Beau is the only one who knows that side of her (even though Sawyer used to be the one who bailed them out of trouble, which implies that both Sawyer and all the people who had ever caught her knew she had a Bad Side). Ashton is an idiot, basically. She wallows in her misery and vacillates and whines until she finally makes a the inevitable choice.

And then we have Beau, the Bad Boy with anger issues. Beau has “loved” (or obsessively fixated on, take your pick) Ashton for years, which is apparently his only redeeming quality. Beau is, somehow, the object of many girl's swoonage, and swoon away, if that's your taste. I just don't get it. I like Alphas. I do. I love it when fictional men are big and strong and have sexy, possessive growls and don't like the heroines hanging out with their attractive exes. But there's a line, and Beau was WAY on the other side of it.

I want to rip his damn arms off his body, Ash. Sawyer, who I'd do anything for. I want to hurt him. If he touches you again in front of me, I'm going to crack. I can't take this. ... Just try not to let him touch you. When he touches you, I see red. I can't take it. I don't want to see him or anyone else touch you. ... Staying with him. Letting him touch you, hold you, God. It's eating me alive.

Spirit girls were girls the cheerleaders added to their numbers so every football player would have a girl to make him goodies on game day. Off the record, spirit girls also happened to help their players with their homework, order pizzas to be delivered to the school for their lunches, and do some unofficial things like back massages and other “hands-on” activities. The starters always picked their spirit girl first, then the rest of the players' names went into a hat and the spirit girls drew them.

messed up

I didn't expect to love this book so much. I and the moment I started reading it, I was hooked and couldn't put it down. It was exhilarating fun and enjoyable! I want more of Ashton and the Vincent boys!

Cousins Sawyer and Beau Vincent were Ashon Gray's childhood best friends. They grew up and protected each other ever since they were five. And even from that time, Beau has always cared and loved Ashton until she became Sawyer's girlfriend. Since then, Beau and Ashton relationship grew apart despite the fact that they were practically the best of friends. For three years of Ashton's relationship with Sawyer, she tried to be good, to be descent, to be worthy of Sawyer's love and affection. She did her best to be the perfect girl for Sawyer–the good and the perfect (well, almost) of the two Vincent boys. Beau on the other hand, has always been the bad boy, the dangerous one. He was once her partner in crime, and he is the one who knows the real Ashton, the boy who love the girl she's trying to conceal. After spending time with Beau, Ash suddenly realized that she must have chosen the wrong Vincent boy after all...

There are lots of things I loved about this book. First of all, the characters. Ash is very real to me. She's an average girl whom you usually meet at school or in your neighborhood. She's not perfect, she's flawed, she has shortcomings, she has mistakes in life like the rest of us. The good thing about her is that she tried to fix things even though it would cost her her own happiness. She didn't deny her mistakes, she accepted the consequences and lived through it. That made me loved her despite of her weaknesses.

Ashton Gray is tired of playing the perfect little princess. Tired of trying to please her religious parents and make herself worthy of the one and only Sawyer Vincent. Beau Vincent is nothing like his perfect cousin. He's sexy, dangerous, and alluring as all get out. In other words, the one guy she should stay away from. Still, she finds herself drawn to him despite everything. What's a girl to do?

Sound fairly familiar? Let's be honest, The Vincent Boys doesn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of story line. The plot is very predictable, but I pretty much knew that going in. Still, I can't deny that it was a pretty scrumptious way to pass a couple of hours. It might take a while for you to get hooked, but once you are it's difficult not to finish.

I had a love/hate relationship with Ashton most of the book. A good portion of the story is spent in Ashton's head, and it isn't always an easy place to be. Her definitions of a “good girl” versus a “bad girl” are fully fueled by her parents, and yet I feel like she was so hard on herself. I can't deny that I hated that she cheated, but the story wouldn't make sense otherwise. Plus, well, it is Beau after all.

Which leads me to Beau and Sawyer Vincent. Night and day, these two are pretty delicious each in their own way. I'm always a sucker for the bad boy. I admit it. Glines' puts these two at odds to allow for some tension, but really it is Beau that shines through it all. A bad boy with a heart of gold. If that doesn't draw you in, I really don't know what will. It definitely kept me reading.

I really felt like this book could have gone into a lot more depth at times. The relationship between Ashton and Beau went from zero to sixty in a matter of pages, and it was a little disconcerting. I felt no emotion for Ashton, even when things went badly for her. It honestly made me sad. Perhaps in the next book we'll dive deeper into the two of them. All in all though, The Vincent Boys ended up being enjoyable. I appreciated the Southern, small town charm that Abbi Glines worked into the story line, and of course I loved Beau. Give this a shot if you're looking for a sweet and quick read.