Review of Cross My Heart

This review is based on a copy of Cross My Heart by Katie Klein that I received on loan via my Kindle. I did not purchase this book nor was it gifted to me by the publisher and/or author.

Goodreads Summary: "True love can blossom in unexpected places. This is Jaden pretending not to notice. . . .

Jaden McEntyre and Parker Whalen are a wrong fit from the start. Jaden is driven and focused, Harvard Med School within reach. Parker has a past-a reputation-and the rumors about his mysterious habits abound. So there's no reason why, when they're assigned to work together on a project in English, they should discover they have anything in common, or even like each other, and they definitely shouldn't be falling in love.

As they bond over Edith Wharton's tragic novella, Ethan Frome, the "bad boy" vibe Parker plays begins to dissipate. Soon, Jaden finds herself shedding her own "good girl" image: sneaking around to be with him, confiding in him, and ultimately falling hard for this leather-wearing, motorcycle-driving loner who plays into the rebel stereotype.

Still, Jaden can't shake the feeling that there's more to Parker than he's letting on. He's hiding something from her, and discovering the truth means reconciling the Parker she's grown to love with the person he really is. Because it's possible that his life inside the classroom-everything Jaden knows-is one, massive lie.

CROSS MY HEART, told from Jaden's point of view, is a 76k-word/300-page contemporary romance for young adults. Bonus features include the official playlist and an interview with the author."

What initially drew my attention to this novel is the novel that the characters had chosen for the school project, Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. Earlier this year, or maybe it was late last year, I picked that very book up from a used book sale having loved Mrs.Wharton's House of Mirth and have been haunted by the book ever since. It's one of those stories that comes back to you at the oddest times and makes you really think. So part of the reason that Cross My Heart caught my attention is that I was curious what kind of spin Katie Klein would put on Ethan Frome.

Let me warn you now that I have a track record of loving books like this, stories that shadow classics or use them in ways that help you to better know the characters. Katie Klein did a wonderful job drawing parallels between her novel and that of Edith Wharton. In fact I'm about ready to pick up Ethan Frome again with some of the new perspectives that I picked up from Katie Klein's novel.

I personally loved the character of Jaden, and not just because of her beautiful name. I found myself easily relating to this character having been a lot like her in high school. Even now that I'm in college I still have a lot of those same tendencies. Always having been a good girl myself, never doing anything wrong or drifting from the social norm it was easy for me to step into Jaden's shoes. My only issue with her character was the fact that she was supposedly a cheerleader. Note that this was never shown, she was always too busy doing schoolwork or saving the world, but every now and than a character would through out there that Jaden was in fact a cheerleader.

One other small annoyance was that almost everything these characters said needed to be followed up with "k". Not okay, not "kay" but "k". But it was something that I could look as overall the story was good.

I'm going to give Katie Klein's Cross My Heart a four out of five star rating. It was a good novel that I recommend you pick up  but it's not a must read. It might just be me but I think that fans of Sarah Dessen's work would enjoy this novel. I only wish it was available in a format besides e-book so that it could go on my shelf.