There are few book and few authors who truly make me wish that I could be part of the stories even just a side character but every single book of M. Robinson’s makes me wish I could be in her stories. The way she writes— her stories are authentic and detailed you can’t help but picture everything that is happening and wish you had a little role in the book. Along with making me wish I could be in her books she also gives me the some of the biggest book hangovers! I wouldn’t change having the book hangover for anything-it means that what I read felt real and her characters came alive on the pages. The moment I was notified Complicate Me was on my kindle I was antsy to start it. Little did I know that starting it would turn into not going to sleep till way past my bedtime only to wake up early because I ended up thinking about the characters in my dreams. I kept telling myself to slow down as I didn’t want to the story to end but yet I kept reading more and more as I wanted to know what the heck was going to happen.

Complicate Me is the story of Lucas and Alex. Lucas and Alex along with the other characters have been friends since before they could remember. The group would do everything together and with Alex being the youngest and only girl she often felt she had to prove herself as “one of the boys”. She spit fire spirit and never taking no for an answer enabled Alex to prove her worthiness as one of the boys many times. Although everyone in the group was extremely close Lucas and Alex (aka Bo and Half Pint) had a special bond with one another. Their bonds at time would actually hinder them from experiencing things and growing up while at other times their bond made their relationship and feelings for one another strength at a rapid speed. As Lucas and Alex try to navigate the waters of growing up and developing feelings for each other, decisions are made and things are said that can’t be undone and cause another to take a different path in life that they may not have originally chosen. Will they ever be able to be on the same page or will their baggage from the past always hinder their future? Will Lucas and Alex ever be able to over the complicatedness of their life and find love and happiness together?

I have been a big fan of M. Robinson even since I found her VIP series so I was very intrigued and excited to see her write a book different from the erotica genre that I was use to with her. To say I loved this book in an understatement. I’ve actually had to wait about two days to write this review as I was in that much of a book hangover-I could have read Lucas and Alex for days. I didn’t want the story to end. Gosh M. Robinson you slay me with you words and leave my heart wide open. I feel in love with every single character of the book-some more than others-which means I am already dying for the other books in this series to come out. I can’t say this enough— you HAVE to read this book!!!

 

Ok I first want to start off by saying that I LOVE M. Robinson and her writing style. I loved the VIP series. Loved. Complicate Me I liked. Now let me clarify. It was good. Really good. But not good enough for me to love like her other books. Now before you jump all over me and call me crazy, here me out…and remember its not that I didnt like this book, I DID…just not as much as others she has written… And here are a few reasons why I didn’t LOVE it…

So this book is about a group of four boys and one girl. All of them have known each other basically since birth. They look out for each other and always have each others backs. Only from the beginning, one of the boys Lucas and the only girl in the group Alex, form a totally different relationship then the rest of the group. Call it love, call it destiny, call it soulmates. It’s just clearly different and they both subconsciously realize it at a very young age.

A huge and I mean huge chunk of the book is them growing up together. This is where the book lost me a little. It was literally every step of their lives….from skinned knees, to menstruation, to nudie magazines, to first kisses, to dating, to puberty….you get what I am saying? I understand that for this book it was important to clearly outline the relationship between Lucas and Alex and the rest of the gang but it was just wayyyyyy too much for me. I honestly think a few chapters could have been shaved off the book at the beginning and added to the end, when they were more grown up. To me, too much time was spent on the childhood…but I totally understand why the need was there. The author really wanted you to understand the strong bond and connections between certain characters. Here, in trying to do that, it got dragged out.

While I loved the interactions and the bonds that they formed and learned the psyche of certain people…it was just too much.

The other thing that I found myself doing was reminding myself that the characters were children throughout most of the first half. The maturity level of Alex at 8 to 11 years old was wayyyyy far beyond what I remember myself being. This was a problem I found through a lot of the first 18 years of the groups life….reminding myself it was an 11 year old thinking this and not an adult. Kids just are not that deep…at least not me or anyone I know or knew at that age.

As you can imagine, over the lives of this group there are many twists and turns and relationships fall apart only to be rebuilt again and I loved the last half or so of the book. I was dying to get to the end to see after all the things that had taken place who would end up together, who would remain friends and who would never speak again.

I really did enjoy the book except for the two things I have listed above but like I said, even with those issues, I enjoyed the book and can’t wait to read more from M. Robinson!!