One Night by A.J. Pine Pages: 248
Published by Intermix, Penguin on April 21, 2015
Genres: contemporary, Love & Romance, New Adult, Romance
Source: eARC from Publisher
When she lost it all, Jess decided to cope by living a lie.
But you can’t keep on pretending forever…
Twenty-one-year-old Jess used to have everything—a loyal best friend, a boyfriend she loved, and a future that was right on track. But in a single night, her whole world changed.
Now, Jess lives for the impersonal connection of drunken hook-ups and to-go coffee cups in the morning. All she needs is one night to pretend everything is fine…until she meets Adam.
Thanks to a sports injury, gorgeous, charming basketball star Adam Carson is stuck in physical therapy at the hospital where Jess interns—giving her the perfect opportunity to see his sweet, considerate nature and making her realize that maybe she does want something more.
But while Adam might be the best thing that’s happened to Jess in a long time, letting him past her carefully constructed walls means letting him know what happened...and why he'd never want her for more than one night.
One Night is the first in a new adult contemporary romance series called Only You. I am not sure if the second book is going to be about new characters or the same characters, so I can’t get into too much of the series structure. One Night focused on Adam and Jess. The story was told entirely from Jess’ point of view. I would have liked to have gotten some glimpses into Adam’s head, but it was good because we really got to know Jess. And she was honestly the main catalyst for this story. Adam was dealing with drama and difficult things in his life but it didn’t immobilize him like it did Jess. One Night is the story of whether Jess can pick herself up and move on from what happened in her past.
And for most of the book, we don’t even know what kind of past thing it was. It was just this big dark cloud hanging over her head, affecting her relationships with everyone. I felt bad for Jess, but I also felt bad for the people in her life, because she wasn’t always the best towards them. I certainly wanted to shake her or snap her out of whatever her funk was because she pushed everyone so far away. If I didn’t see the type of person she was through her work or the passion she had for helping people as a physical therapist, I would have had a hard time liking her. But she is a very kind and caring person with her job, but socially she is so closed off. Her roommate hit the nail on the head about her.
And speaking of her roommate, I really hope the next book is her story. I loved Zoe. She was so patient and good to Jess, and she hardly even knew the girl! And don’t even get me started on Adam. That boy is a saint. He is a local celerity for being on the college basketball team, but I loved that she didn’t seem like the stereotypical jock. Yes, he loved playing basketball, but it wasn’t his whole life and he absolutely did not have a big ego at all. He was so into Jess from the moment he met her. At times, I had to stop and wonder why because she was not always so nice to him, but he saw the real Jess when she was working at the hospital and he never gave up on her. I love Adam. He is a great big teddy bear and I want him all to myself.
Watching Adam and Jess’ journey was very rewarding. At times you honestly don’t know if there is going to be a happy ending or not, and I won’t spoil it and tell you which way it turns out. But I will say that I think it turned out the way it needed to. Everything happened for a reason in One Night, and while it wasn’t always the happiest or lightest read, it was a great read! I recommend this book to readers that like their New Adult romances a little darker and with a kind of damaged and bumpy (but rewarding) ride.
While you are here…
Have you entered these awesome Giveaways?
Click the banner to enter
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- May Clean Sweep ARC 2015
I love this cover! I think it was used for another book and I liked it then and still do. Glad this was a pretty okay read for you even if it did have some flaws.