Bookbabe Review: I Take You by Eliza Kennedy

                                       

Beware: Not your conventional chic lit: Review of I Take You by Eliza Kennedy

I received this book from Blogging for Books (a program maintained by Penguin Random House); and have promised to write an honest review. Eliza Kennedy's I Take You was not at all what I had expected. I thought it would be your typical chick lit story. But boy was I wrong. 

In this novel we are introduced to Lily; a tough talking, overly flirty, 30 something attorney. She's brutally honest and funny and Gosh It could be so easy to like her...if....she was not flirting and kissing with all these unnamed men and then swooning over how great her fiancee Will is. 

The Book actually opens with Lily making out with a man in a bar and then after having her partying cut short goes into work and proceeds to have sex with her boss. 

It was at this point; which was way to early on, that I almost wanted to ditch the book. But, I really wanted to see where the author was going. Plus, I wanted to know if she and Will would make it down the aisle; and if Will was going to find out about her cheating.

As the book goes on we start to get an even deeper look into Lily. We find out that her actions as a teenager caused the death of a friend; she cost another friend (and her first love) the lost of his freedom for a few years. She also does drugs, which is featured at least twice in the book. Lily is anything put perfect. But in reality none of us are. So maybe that is why her personality, character and the novel is so utterly realistic. 

Lily's fiancé, Will, seems absolutely perfect. He's funny, intelligent, well educated and employed at the Met. However, Will, is not at all what he seems. He is as bad as she is. However, he has been hiding it will and Lily was none the wiser. However, Will knew very will what Lily was doing. She was not as good at hiding it. She kept odd hours and came home smelling of liquor and sex. Also, she had weird text messages from strange contacts on her phone. Will, however, had a two phone system. A phone just for texting and talking to random women. One of which was Lily's college roommate Nicolle. Who he sleeps with, more than once. Lily is not made aware of Will's betrayals until their rehearsal dinner. He reaction is a bit infuriating; she actually gets mad. Which makes absolutely no sense. And Will tells her as much. Lily has no right to be made because she has been sleeping with anyone and everyone. Will is just the male version of herself; which makes them perfect for one another. 

This book was not exactly one of my favorite reads of the summer. But, it was enjoyable. It was like watching a train wreck, you just could not look away. In the end, the only character I really liked was the Grandmother. Kennedy could have featured her a little more in this book....because she was funny. I gave this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

Quotes I loved:

"Think positive, Iz....Your kitchen skills could jump start a new career. The legal profession's loss could be the prison food industry's gain."

"The human heart is the darkest of all mysteries. Who among us can honestly say he knows, truly knows, anyone else? Who even knows himself? Not you. Certainly not me."

"Can you imagine what would happen if people knew their spouses properly before marrying them? It would be calamity."

"A recent law school grad is like a newborn panda, mewling and useless. She needs a few years of growth and experience before she can be released into the wild without getting eaten."