Title: Love is Louder

Author: Anna_mayy

Genre: Romance

Quick Summary: Cool motive, still a dick.

Thoughts:

There are two common plots that open up [high school] romance books: MC is late/generally waking up for school, or MC is [reluctantly] going to a party... This book does the second. Granted, this is the less common opening and I'm glad for that, but I wish we'd been given something less... common. Not to mention, it doesn't really do anything new. Evangelyn is dragged to a party she clearly didn't want to go to, gets abandoned by her friend, and bumps into what I'm 95% confident is the love interest. The moment I read the second paragraph, I had already called all of this happening.

Cole is a dick. He feels like the walking embodiment of... well...

This^ principal. That, oh, it's okay he's a dick and emotionally as rough as sandpaper because he's had a [presumed] hard-knock life or whatever. I don't really feel any sympathy for him and I don't really ship him and Evangelyn because he's got a bad attitude. Not to mention, Evangelyn forces him into situations he is very obviously not cool with, which upsets me because the story opened up with her being forced into situations so you'd think she'd wisen up. She doesn't have much of a concept of what boundaries are. Especially in chapter eight when she keeps offering things and Cole says no and then she just... does them anyway. It just... isn't the kind of relationship I can see being healthy. Maybe that's the point. I don't know.

Aside from their relationship, Cole and Gunner's beef is... weird. We don't find out what happened after Cole and Gunner's first "fight" but he obviously didn't get punished or anything for that little spat. Then Cole gets the shit beat out of him again, at school no less... and aside from a round of aftercare I'm not sure how that's going to be dealt with. Not to mention, instead of taking him to the school nurse or, I don't know, a hospital, she takes him to... her house? How does that make sense? The problem can't be dealt with at the school if you take him away from the school, yaknow. 

I will give props to Anna for having parents that aren't overbearing or practically nonexistent - Evangelyn's parents have a nice, healthy relationship with each other and with Evangelyn, making their expectations of her known while still being lenient where they need to and incredibly understanding. They're doing parenting right, from what I'm seeing.

In terms of writing itself, the first-person narration is good and consistent and Evangelyn has an alright voice for the POV. There's some... wonkiness in parts and sometimes bits of dialogue are skipped over that didn't need to be, being replaced with a sentence or two of exposition. This is especially prominent in the dialogue between Evangelyn and her mother after Eva brings Cole home. There's a bit at the end that gets skimmed over - it didn't need to be. 

I can't see myself actually shipping this so I won't be continuing, but the writing itself is good so Anna gets props for that. Maybe Evangelyn and Cole become better people later on.