Review: Catching Liam (Good Girls Don't Book 1) by Sophia Bleu

Book: Catching Liam (Good Girls Don't) Book 1

Author: Sophia Bleu

Publish Date: July 8th, 2013

Published By: Sophia Bleu Books

Genre: NA/Romance

Series: Book One in the Good Girls Don't series

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Link: Amazon

Synopsis:

 Twenty-one year-old Jillian Nichols only has one rule when it comes to boys: catch and release. Boy-catching isn't just a game for Jillian and her friends, it's a lifestyle. After all, boys might be good for a dance or a drink and certainly a little under-cover action of the scandalous variety, but expect much else and you're bound for heart ache.

So when her best friends and fellow boy catchers start dropping like flies junior year, Jillian is determined to keep boys in her bedroom and out of her heart. Until she meets Liam McAvoy, the kind of guy that sticks around to make waffles and who can't—or perhaps won't—take a hint. 

Study abroad student Liam doesn't want to be another notch on Jillian's bedpost. Actually he has much more interesting ideas for Jillian and her bedposts, but his student visa's set expiration date means he can't promise her forever. That doesn't mean he's going to walk away from the challenge of discovering why Jillian is hell-bent at keeping people at a distance. 

Before long, neither is sure who is catching who—or if they're playing for keeps. Jillian knows one thing though: falling in love will not only break the only rule of boy-catching, it could also break her heart.

Disclaimer: I bought this book off of Amazon.

Review:

I had no idea what to expect from this book. I had heard that it was a good read and that Liam was swoon-worthy but never in a million years did I expect this book to resonate with me so completely. I loved Jillian for many reasons but the thing that most resonated with me were her medical issues and how she approached life because of it. 

Her system of "catch and release" made sense to me. I don't think it's the healthiest approach but as someone who has her own serious health issues I totally understand her not wanting to get emotionally close to any guy. She didn't want to become attached to the guy only to have him leave when he learned of her condition. She didn't think anyone would want to be with her if they knew of her diagnosis.

I understood that because I have felt the exact same way.I didn't want a guy to feel obligated to stay with me just because I have health problems. I don't want pity and that's I'm sure,why Jillian didn't share things with Liam for a very long time. When you have a serious illness you don't want to be pitied. You want to be accepted and loved. Which is a Catch-22 if you don't allow anyone to get close to you.

Which brings me to Liam. Holy hotness on a cracker. It's one thing to have a guy who's attractive or a guy that's a sweetheart. It's entirely different to have those things be in the same guy plus a million other amazing qualities.He cared for her in a way that Jillian never expected. 

Allowing herself to fall for Liam was an amazing thing to watch. Liam wormed his way into her heart and he made her happy. He did sort of coddle her towards the end of it but given what had happened, I couldn't blame him. Oh and I have never had a craving for waffles as bad as I did every time I read this book.He was exactly what Jillian didn't realize she needed.

Jillian's friends were great. I wish we had seen more of Cassie but from what we did see of her, I liked. I absolutely adored Jessica. What an amazing young lady and friend she was to Jillian through the entire book. She kept an eye on her,she knew what to do if things went south(which they seemed to do whenever Jillian's mother was around)

"Do you really think that boy would stick around if he knew you were going to be dependent on him someday." Tara

This quote stuck with me for several reasons. Jillian's mother, Tara hit on a big fear of Jillian's that she hadn't publicly acknowledged yet. She was terrified of what would happen between Liam and herself if she told him of her diagnosis. She was also being told,indirectly of course, that she wasn't good enough to stick around for.

I know most people will say that Jillian's mother was a real piece of work and yes she was BUT I saw her as very similar to my grandmother in the way that she tried to micromanage everything about her adult daughter's life. So I could definitely relate to this as my grandmother has on multiple times tried to micromanage things and I'm 27 years old.

The end was amazing. Watching Jillian realize that, yes she was deserving of love, was amazing and I sobbed pretty much all the way through the last 5-7% of the book. Watching her realize that she wasn't broken and that her disease was only a small part of her. I have always maintained that my health issues are only a small part of me but watching that click in Jillian's head was amazing.

This book was absolutely incredible and I am so looking forward to reading the next book in the series. This book gets a resounding 5 stars from me for how much I related to it,the wonderful characters and the mix of both a tough subject and romance.