Review: Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison

Anything to Have You
Author: Paige Harbison
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: NetGalley
Review by: Jenn
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / IndieBound

My rating: 2.5 stars out of 5 stars

Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.
Natalie and Brooke have had each other's back forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie - the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be.
Then it happens - one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.

*I received an eARC of this book from the publisher but it did not influence this review in any way.*

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. It took an unexpected turn and I'm so conflicted about it; I liked it but I didn't. It broke some of my big no-nos in books and it ended in a way that feels like the author tried to give everyone their happy endings and it just didn't work.

From what the synopsis tells us, a boy gets in between best friends, Natalie and Brooke. Right from the beginning, I picked up on the little hints of the girls history in regards to Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden. Brooke is the typical party girl and is used to being in the center of attention and Natalie is the shy, quiet girl who prefers to stay at home.

But Natalie is hiding a secret. She likes Brooke's boyfriend and it seems like Aiden likes her too. When all three of them head off to a party, things gets a little out of control. And I have to say I was a little surprised by Natalie. She kept insisting that she would rather stay home and watch movies but at the party I saw a girl that I didn't recognized. She knew that she couldn't hold her liquor but she still drank shots and anything that passed her way. On top of that, she also said that on her last party, she blacked out and didn't remember anything but did remembered having sex with someone. So I find it hard to believe that she would just go ahead and drink to the point of blacking out, all while still proclaiming that she doesn't like the party scene.

I also didn't like how Brooke was portrayed as the bad friend/person just because she wanted to have fun and drink. It feels like the author, Paige, was trying to show two completely different personality types and make them very stereotypical as well. Natalie did bad things too and to her "best friend" Brooke especially. But Natalie and Aiden tried to justify it to themselves because of how Brooke would act. I just found Natalie to have this holier than thou attitude and I didn't like it.

There was also an interesting twist to the plot just that made it too overwhelming. By the time I reached that point of the story, I just wanted to get to the end and be done with it. How it ended was also a little too far-fetched and a little too much. If it was me, I would have left town and not looked back. Unfortunately, this was not the book for me. The friendship of Natalie and Brooke got too screwed up and I don't think in the real world they would have been able to repair their friendship.