Review: As Long As You Love Me by Ann Aguirre

Posted 9 October, 2014 in Reviews / 5 Comments

Title: As Long As You Love Me
Series: 2B Trilogy #2
Author: Ann Aguirre
Genres: New Adult, Romantic Comedy
Release Date: September 30, 2014
Amazon (affiliate link) • Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Read more

About As Long As You Love Me:
Most people dream about getting out of Sharon, Nebraska, but after three years away, Lauren Barrett is coming home. She has her reasons—missing her family, losing her college scholarship. But then there's the reason Lauren can't admit to anyone: Rob Conrad, her best friend's older brother.

Football prowess and jaw-dropping good looks made Rob a star in high school. Out in the real world, his job and his relationships are going nowhere. He's the guy who women love and leave, not the one who makes them think of forever—until Lauren comes back to town, bringing old feelings and new dreams with her.

Because the only thing more important than figuring out where you truly belong is finding the person you were meant to be with.

Related Books: The Shape of My Heart

My Review:

Recommended for: Backstreet Boys fangirls and anyone who’s had even a smidgen of a quarter-life crisis.
Just like with I Want It That Way, this post gets bonus points right off the bat for getting a great, nostalgic song stuck in my head right off the bat. I remember making a music video to this song at my friend Hannah’s birthday party in middle school. It was intense.

So Lauren was having a little bit of a quarter-life crisis in I Want It That Way, and As Long As You Love Me focuses on her dealing with the aftermath and figuring out who she really is. This is something I relate to a lot right now. I’m trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with my life, where I want to do it, and who I want to do it with.

Nadia’s story was pretty relatable for twenty-somethings, but I think that most people my age reading As Long As You Love me won’t just relate to Lauren’s story, they’ll recognize themselves in it. I know I did, and so did a few friends I told the story to. For this reason, I loved it even more than I loved I Want It That Way.

Like, seriously, I cannot begin to go into how much I related to Lauren. Between the quarter-life crisis, the social anxiety, the anal retentive tendencies, and the techiness, I felt like she was my twin.

While she was trying to figure out who she wanted to be, Rob was figuring out a lot too, which I loved. He’s dealing with things that have been drilled into his head his whole life, to the point that he just accepted them. He was like a spokesperson for settling, because that’s what he was told he should do. Dear Rob and Nadia’s family, you suck.

And I loved, loved, loved how they could help each other with what they were working on. Sure, it may have started out under iffy circumstances because there was chemistry and attraction, yet Rob was in an (albeit unhappy) relationship, but that just made for hilarious drama and gas station fights later on. 🙂

Finally, let’s talk about the drama. Once again, it’s real. It’s not stalkers. It’s not a long-lost child or sibling or father. There’s no overdramatic bullshit that’s so popular in contemporary romance. I mean, sure, I enjoy the super drama when it’s well done, but it’s normally not. I’m over reading confessions of love while one half of the couple is laying in a hospital bed.

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About Ann Aguirre:

Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author and RITA winner with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. Ann likes books, emo music, action movies, and she writes all kinds of genre fiction for adults and teens, published with Harlequin, Macmillan, and Penguin, among others.