Girls Are Props (GAP #2)
by Ingrid Seymour
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Source: eARC for the Blog Tour
Jessica Norton is a villain in the body of a gorgeous, rich, college girl. She cheats, lies, plays with people’s feelings, and purposely breaks unsuspecting hearts to avenge a personal loss. She’s the kind of girl people love to hate—even if it’s just because she has it all. Except . . . she doesn’t have it all. What she wants most is the love of her high school sweetheart, Taylor Drennon, the guy who got away, the one who left without telling her why and caused all her bitterness.
Not surprisingly, Jessica’s evil has made her a pariah. Alone, without friends or Taylor’s love, her college life is a nightmare. She’s haunted by her own mistakes and drowning in lack of direction. Something needs to change. So when the first opportunity to turn her life around presents itself, she takes it. Home for Christmas break, Jessica runs into Taylor. His unexpected friendliness seems like an invitation to rekindle their love. Inspired by a drastic idea that will both distance her from her heinous reputation and pull her closer to Taylor, she decides to transfer to OSU where he attends under a football scholarship.
Confident she can regain his heart, Jessica reenters Taylor’s life with a splash. Failing to naturally lure him closer, she is then forced to rely on her old games and underhanded scheming. Though Jessica’s heart is in the right place, it is hidden from Taylor by her blunders. More than once their powerful chemistry takes control, leading Jessica to believe she’s winning. But, it’s a hot and cold affair, and she’s not the only one to blame for their stormy love. If Jessica can only coax Taylor into explaining why he doesn’t want her, maybe she could finally walk away from him for good, maybe she could finally be happy.
Reaching toward my nightstand, I pulled the top drawer open. Tied with a pink ribbon, I found a small stack of letters nestled inside an old box of chocolates. They still gave off a slight scent of cologne. A jolt of electricity rushed between my thighs. Without a trace of doubt, every time I caught that scent, I was reminded that the sense of smell is the most powerful at triggering memories.
How many times did I moan in ecstasy with my face pressed to Taylor’s neck, inhaling this scent entwined with his own musk? Too many to remember.
I pulled an envelope out of the stack. I hadn’t read one of his letters in months. After our break-up, I’d gone through them every day, longing for what was lost. In the last few months, however, I hadn’t allowed myself to dwell on the old mementos, trying desperately to forget, to let go. Now it seemed his little note had sent me into binge-read mode.
Damn the cruel man! Once more, I was trapped in the faint spicy fragrance of his cologne, the crookedness of his handwriting, the richness of his words. Having deprived myself of this comfort for so long soon had me opening letter after letter. My fingers moved with clumsy anxiety as I craved to read another assurance of love, another tender moniker that wasn’t true anymore.
With each letter, I pretended I had just received it. I convinced myself that Taylor still thought my eyes were brighter than the stars, that he still believed we’d been designed for each other, that his heart still thudded when my lips brushed his unexpectedly, that he still loved me.
The words triggered memories that I’d managed to lock away in order to stave off the pain. Now, they poured out and paraded in front of my eyes, a movie on fast-forward. Our initial friendship, the way we inevitably fell in love, our first kiss, the first time we made love. The letters made every memory feel fresh and true.
Ingrid Seymour loves, loves, loves to write. She's a young and new adult author. She writes in a variety of genres including romance, urban fantasy, paranormal and horror. She loves pizza and sushi, Sunkist and gum. She believes in vampires, witches, but not zombies (uh-uh, never!) She writes to loud music, daydreams constantly and spends too much time in twitter!! Find her there? ;)
Ingrid has incredible fun doing what she does, but more than anything she enjoys hearing from her readers. It's a dream come true.
**an eARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review**
OHMIGOD! It was an honor to have read this early. The GAP Club was dearly close to my heart and so was this book. I was very enlightened when I received the email and immediately started reading. It sent some un-fugging-believable butterflies in my stomach! Just an FYI, the book is second to the series and can be read as a standalone.
We've all known Jessica Norton from the previews book The Guys Are Props Club by the very same author. She's this evil bitch from that book that seem to be superior to every one she encounters and likes to trash talk guys. In Girls Are Players, Jessica is still the same bitch we've come to know but there's a few more things we've never known of her that makes her this whole new person, and we found out why she did this so-called guy trash talking. Knowing her story wounded me so much. I was utterly speechless whilst reading throughout the book. One second I was having this really good words to put on this review then all of a sudden it just came that I wouldn't write it down because I was diving so much with words and losing myself reading, resulting of my forgetting what I was supposed to write down.
Anyway, you see, I'm an emotional wreck. I shied my tear away because of the events that went and passed by. I was hurting for her. Getting so much of what she's been through was so much and I feel like going on a nervous breakdown if I was in that situation. I never thought of her having situations like that. Because during the scenarios on the first book, you'd really love hating Jessica because of the Plays she pulled. But here it's different. I saddened me and it dawned on me how lonely her life was. Remember the part back at The Guys Are Props Club where she hid the box full of Taylor's letters? Gods, that just mystified me. I felt every emotion she's been! Omigod. I can't recover.
And then there's Taylor. First impressions first:
1. Hot. I could just imagine his sculpted body in my mind *sulks*
2. The badass. Okay sorry. I was irritated with him at first. We'll further discuss this later.
3. Nuts. He acted really weird. I swear at first I really can't decipher his actions.
I was inconsolable. It was weird really. I felt this wave again. The 'I've never felt this way' feelings after reading a book. Forgive me. I was swept away. With what? With his cryptic words. With his confession. With every truth he said. With every pointless direction he's pointed by pushing away Jessica. With his very intent to put her to what's probably the best way but is not. With his being enigmatic. With his tatts. With him. The whole lot of him. Taylor is lost at words. He can't express his feelings so damn well and it bothered me and I find it cute at the same time. Bullshit. But he's still hot in every possible way. He and Jessica are lost in translation. And I grew to love them both!
Okay, so let me tell you why I was a bit irritated and pissed. It started when I encountered Chris. I wouldn't tell much but please do compare. They are so much unlike. And I was just thinking 'What on earth is Taylor's problem?' I love Taylor, I do! He and Jessica are meant for each other and they freaking look good together. It's just he was a bit of pain in the ass and it sort of pushed me to just say these words. And he was holding back so I kind of understood that part anyway. I just felt like I really need to say this to express what I felt—which was freaking much than that of the first, by the way.
The plot. Okay, so this was really my favorite part of the story. I sort of didn't know what will really happen since it's quite unpredictable and it will really put you to this sudden feeling that you really need to read the story in order to understand and find out what will really happen. There are is a part where you'd really find out what will happen to this or that but mostly, it will put your mind into coaxing to think what happens next as I keep on telling myself 'I wonder what happens next' or 'what will she do now?' The plot was really well-written. It was beautiful even more beautiful than the first book. I don't know how Ingrid did it but it swept me away. Certain twist were also my kind of thing, so when that part happened, I just sort of flailed and thus, I finished the book. And she just really did it again! I cried myself because not only was it good but you'll find really good morals in the story.
Ingrid Seymour has done it again! Her words enlighten me every time I read her work of fiction. The GAP Series has been very close to my heart, put me into tears, and left my heart beating after every story. After her first book, she's left readers wanting for more of her GAP series. Now I wonder what's next. Will there still be a GAP 3 or will she open up her heart to a whole new lot of series and stories to come. We'll never know but I hope there's more of GAP, like, where I was thinking, Kim and Adam should star the story. But, yeah, they sort of didn't know or they weren't really GAP-related. Hihihi ((:
Anyway, I enjoyed it. I loved it (TO THE VERY CORE!!) Ingrid, you totally rock!
I seriously want more! Please!
Ingrid is giving away $50 Amazon GC, signed copies of both Guys Are Props Club and Girls Are Players! And some swag. WOOHOO! Open internationally.
GOOD LUCK, Yo!
Labels: Blog Tour, Book Review, Ingrid Seymour, New Adult, The GAP Club
