Book Review: Ryan Ringbloom’s Flaw

Posted March 3, 2014 by Kathy Davie in

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review: Ryan Ringbloom’s Flaw

Flaw


on January 20, 2014 and has 312 pages.

Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon


First in the New Adult romance series and revolving around three people who have a lot to learn about themselves and not judging others.

I was given an advance copy of the eBook.

My Take

I’m conflicted over Flaw. I love the story, and yes, it made me laugh and cry. What I like about Flaw is its main character — a jerk of a teen guy. The kind we ladies are warned against, who want to use us for their own ends. I just want to smack him within the first few pages as we read his thoughts about this girl in the car and his reasons — his so very justifiable reasons — for wanting to move out on his own. Arghhh! And, poor thing, he’s just exhausted from the move…*eye roll*

Ladies, read Josh’s thoughts to learn what guys are really thinking when they pick you up in a bar. It may save your self-respect in the morning.

“Hey, it’s not my fault your girl’s a slut.”

I love that “Joe” gets his comeuppance in this. The positive is that it is in a growing sort of way, although, again, I do wish his parents hadn’t been such pushovers, or at least had some depth to them before the end.

Then there’s Aidan. It’s night and day with these two: beautiful and horrible. Josh is beautiful on the outside while Aidan is gorgeous on the inside. I do love how honest, if misguided, Josh is in his thoughts. And I love that neither Aidan nor Becca let him off the hook!

On the whole, I like Becca, although that scene with the car and the radio early on seems out of character for her.

Ringbloom does a nice job of stringing us along. Keeping Aidan’s problems under the radar while flaunting Josh’s. Then she switches it up and makes us realize how lucky Josh is. This kid who has everything and trashes it while the one who never had good examples is one of the best.

“Sometimes when you have to work a little harder at something, you find you appreciate it more.”

Oh, that scene with Christina…I cried… And that ending comment about “that same weird couple”…I loved it!

I like that Ringbloom is pulling in the don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover as her underlying theme AND switching it back and forth amongst the haves and have-nots, right along with the jumping-to-conclusions, lol. That she demonstrates that it’s not a concept rooted in any one class of society. Now if she’d gone for depth as well…dang, the message is great, it’s the delivery that’s flawed.

However, I do wish that Ringbloom had spent more time and provided more depth to the characters and to what each was experiencing. It’s a great message Ringbloom has for her readers, and it does come through well. It would have been better if she had moved more smoothly in leading us and her characters into their realizations and thoughts. It’s too abrupt, too surface with too much tell and not enough show. Part of that might be the fault of the first-person perspective from each of the four main characters. No, it was easy to tell them apart, but I suspect that the ease of it made it too easy to ignore developing the characters.

Josh’s sudden insight into his behavior, Aidan and Becca ignoring what’s happening between them, Jordyn’s avoidance of her own feelings and her asking Josh to go to the wedding, the quick “escape” Aidan makes after that “event” with Jordyn (I can’t even call it a night), and the interactions between the four main characters are examples of the undeveloped, shallow moments that could have led to a really great, more believable, more dramatic story. I would have liked more angst, more desperation, more questions about the nature of the friendships that already exist or are coming to be.

A story full of challenge for everyone, Flaw is written simplistically, more for a high school audience than New Adult, but the language is definitely New Adult.

The Story

It’s the immediate needs of Josh Brewster that set Aidan, Becca, and Jordyn in motion. And Becca and Aidan don’t let Josh’s expectations continue, for Josh has entered the real world where few get the cushion Josh has felt his whole life.

And all four will discover that each of their prejudices are set on end.

The Characters

The 21-year-old Josh Brewster, a.k.a., Joe, is a selfish, immature jerk — he is at least consistent in “letting” his mama do everything for him.

Aidan Turner is terrifyingly ugly with a heart of gold and a passion for designing tattoos whose placid acceptance of a life alone will break your heart. Jason is his stepbrother. The silly and colorful, loving Becca is practically his roommate even though she lives across the hall.

Jordyn Sharpe is the uncritical, but uptight “friend” whose dad owns Twisted, the bar where Josh gets a job.

Mindy is the girl from last night. Frank owns the tattoo shop where Aidan works. Ashley Simons is one of Josh’s rejects, and she’s dating Patrick Daniels whom Becca once dated. Kent Daniels is his brother and one of the bands hired to play at Twisted. Tessa is another reject and probably the one girl who hates Josh the most, who happens to be dating Tucker, Jordyn’s cousin. Erin is the bride.

The Cover and Title

It’s Josh and Becca on the cover — the gray hair is the tip-off! Leaning back, he’s in jeans with his wrists caught behind him in the cuffs of the satin-lined jacket he’s taking off while Becca in black lingerie is both kneeing him on one end and stroking his neck at the other.

The title is what we see in ourselves, what each character finds in him- or herself, the Flaw that refuses to allow any one of them to be happy in their lives.