The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott

Book: The Unwritten Rule

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Age: Young Adult (YA)

Release date: March 16th, 2010

Pages: 244

Source: Borrowed

Summary: 

Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don't like your best friend's boyfriend.

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Bianna is Sarah's best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more...

Review: This book was my first attempt at reading an Elizabeth Scott novel, and it was almost my last.

The characters in this story are kind of blah, boring. The writing is great, it's easy to see that her writing is wonderful and engaging, but I couldn't connect with or even like the characters. Ryan? I didn't like the guy. I thought he was too weak to do the right thing, and a complete moron to top it off. Sarah is quiet, loyal and soft spoken...which is why I'm surprised I was having a hard time connecting with her. Briana is a lot like a girl I knew in high school, so I cannot deny that she was definitely a realistic character. It seemed like Scott attempted to make us sympathize with her by giving us reasons for why she is the way she is, but I could hardly care less. 

The story, however, was slow. Sarah spends the whole novel going "Oh, I feel so bad" or "I really like Ryan" or "I wonder when Ryan is going to tell Brianna that they're over and he likes me instead" (I'm paraphrasing, since I'm too lazy to double check). It took too long. The only thing that kept me reading was the insistance that Scott was a fabulous writer, but the plot/characters dragged the story down.

Highlights: While I wasn't fond of the characters, some of them are realistic. I could easily go to any place in my city and find a Brianna. Plus, Scott's writing is wonderful. Even when I didn't want to continue, I couldn't stop. Her writing is just my style, and it's weird that I even liked it when I disliked the novel. 

Lowlights: Plot. Slowness. Annoying characters who can't seem to be honest or discuss anything. Boring. In the end, I felt like I wasted my time with reading The Unwritten Rule. My biggest complaint is just that the idea wasn't strong enough to carry the entire story, and the characters were completely frustrating. 

Rating:   

Lea