Review: TRUE by Erin McCarthy

Synopsis:
When Rory Macintosh’s roommates find out that their studious and shy friend has never been with a guy, they decide that, as an act of kindness they’ll help her lose her virginity by hiring confident, tattooed bad boy Tyler Mann to do the job…unbeknownst to Rory.

Tyler knows he’s not good enough for Rory. She’s smart, doctor smart, while he’s barely scraping by at his EMT program, hoping to pull his younger brothers out of the hell their druggy mother has left them in. But he can’t resist taking up her roommates on an opportunity to get to know her better. There’s something about her honesty that keeps him coming back when he knows he shouldn’t…

Torn between common sense and desire, the two find themselves caught up in a passionate relationship. But when Tyler’s broken family threatens to destroy his future, and hers, Rory will need to decide whether to cut her ties to his risky world or follow her heart, no matter what the cost…

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I struggled a bit with how to rate this one. Even though the story was somewhat predictable and the characters could have been developed a bit more, I still liked this. It’s a sweet tale of first love.

True is the story of misunderstood bad-boy Tyler and twenty-year old virgin good girl Rory. I could understand how Rory would be attracted to Tyler, and vice versa. Even though I’ve seen these character-types in other books in this genre, I was able to relate to them.

The book was on the shorter side, and the story was predictable but still enjoyable. I cared about the characters enough to keep reading to find out how they would resolve the fact that they came from two different worlds. I really liked Tyler’s sense of honor, and I liked Rory’s “love conquers all” thinking, even though Tyler was much more practical in his thinking when it came to that. Like I said, first love.

Things wrap up very quickly in this story and I would have liked a little more there. These two had so many hurdles to face, and it was hard to see at that point how this couple was going to make it. For that reason, it was a dubious HEA for me.

One real problem I did have with this book was that I didn’t care at all about the secondary characters. They were unlikeable to me. I would be challenged to read a follow-up book about them, I’m sad to say.

So overall, for me, True was an quick, emotional read with a predictable story and likeable main characters. 3 out of 5 flames.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Berkley, NAL / Signet Romance, DAW and Netgalley for a preview copy in exchange for an honest review.