Robin is your classic college party girl. Skips classes nonchalantly. On the frat house scene every weekend religiously. Consumes more alcohol than the average person should ever. And is the princess of Promiscuous Town. However, her endless nights of frivolity come to an end when she blacks out one night after too much drinking and wakes up the next morning beside Nathan, her best friend’s boyfriend. Of all the things Robin is, she prides herself on not being a man-stealer. Especially to Kylie, one of her closest sweetest friends. How on earth can she look Kylie or any of her other friends in the eye knowing that she committed a deed that defiles everything the girl code stands for and, worse yet, can’t remember how she got herself in that mess in the first place?
But funny enough, love has an odd timing and also a criminal record. Phoenix is your typical bad boy. Fresh out of jail. Tatoos on ever crevice of his body. And a family history that would break even the toughest leather jacket- wearing biker’s heart.
Only by destiny were these two screwed up people brought together and only by fate will their relationship last when both individuals’ past is uncovered and the shit really hits the fan.
I can’t begin to express how much I enjoyed reading every page of Believe. But I’ll give it my best shot.
First and foremost, I loved how easy it was to love, hate and be neutral about the characters McCarthy weaves into this novel. At the beginning of the novel, I had absolutely no heart for Robin. I mean, why should I? She was a carefree and mindless girl who was watching her life slowly dwindle away and couldn’t care less. But then she finds herself in Nathan’s bed and instantly, that girl disintegrates and what’s left is the core of the girl that I came to not only like but understand fully over the course of the book.
Then there’s Phoenix, a seriously messed up guy with a similar past. I loved him from the start. Not just because he was described as a dark haired tattooed god but because as soon as he was inserted into the story, I knew that he was the lever that was to get this roller coaster going and he did just that. As soon as he and Robin meet eyes, they both feel an instant attraction to one another but deny it for their own nonsensical reasons. Eventually, they give in to the desire that anybody reading this book knew was inevitable. But I especially like the way Phoenix described falling in love with Robin; he said that Robin had worked her way into every part of his being, spreading like “octopus ink across the ocean floor” and that once he admitted he was also in love with her, he knew he had moved into “octopus territory”. I also loved Phoenix’s character because in everything he did, he was rational; he questioned whether or not he was hurting anyone or if anything was hurting him. He was also extremely considerate till the point that he was ready to downplay his feelings so that Robin or any other individual around him could be happy.
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There’s also Robin’s friends who I didn’t really have much feelings towards. I mean, maybe I had the urge to twist the words in the story around so that Nathan fell in a snake pit instead of simply being dumped by Kylie and maybe I had I harbored some not so nice thoughts about Jessica for being harsh towards Robin even though they were close friends but then I realized that all the characters and events in the novel all helped to mold it into the type of story that is worthy enough to sit among the other novels on my bookshelf.
Kudos to you Erin McCarthy for creating a novel that is both self-evaluating and re-readable.
Rating: 9/10
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Book Info:
Publisher: InterMix (January 21, 2014)
Length: 232 pages
Series: (True Believers #3)
Source: ARC
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Completed: January 2014
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