Stay With Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Calla hasn’t done a lot of things. She’s never been kissed, never seen the ocean, never gone to an amusement park. But growing up, she witnessed some things no child ever should. She still carries the physical and emotional scars of living with a strung-out mother. Calla now has to go back to the small town she thought she'd left behind and clean up her mom’s mess again. Instead of finding her mother she finds, six feet of hotness named Jackson James working as a bartender/Manager of her mother's bar.

Today marks a day that I thought would never come... Thought would never happen... Today is the day I read a Jla book and didn't love it.  

This book had me saying "What the F am I reading" at least once ever chapter.

We have my first issue and that's Calla,the tormented girl with the dark past. Then there's my second problem, Jax, the slore turned nice guy. And then there's my final issue, the whole plot line. Calla is boring, cliche, and uninteresting in every since of the word. She often describes herself as dumb, and I have to agree. I thought she was. Jax looks-wise is all you'll ever want in a man. He even comes with a sexy back story. But that's pretty much all I liked about him. That and he said "Honey" a lot, which I found oddly sexy. Besides that I didn't connect with either characters. Jennifer writes characters that time and time again I've fallen in love with, and if this was any other writer I would have given this book a lower ranting and thrown into my DNF file. Everything from the way they met, to the secrets that "build" their relationship was a big  turn off for me. Found it all rather tacky.

Jax from the start, though hot, is gross. He basically just short of pulls out his P on the girl and verbally assault her to get her into him. Yes he turns out to be more likeable by the end but not a whole like more. I think the whole "my face has a scar" thing with Calla was taken WAY to far! It was brought up, one too many times aka every two seconds. I also think I saw someone say that it was too highlighted that Calla must look like this blushing virgin, and I think that description hits the nail on the head. She is this super good girl whose never done anything with her life. Ya girls never even eaten pie... Like come on B they sell that at publix and I know you work near a Walmart and there's not a single one of those that isn't a super store now... Go to the Deli section and get yourself a pie and stop crying!

Then there's the intro of these random characters that are even more pointless than this plot line. Aimee, Jax sorta Ex, only exists to make Calla jealous, me angry, and as a failed attempt at a plot twist. There are with that plot twist other failed plot twist, THAT YOU WILL SEE COMING FROM A MILE AWAY!!!! The whole story is a bunch of thrown together small stories, that try to build this bigger crazy story, but then falls flat on it's face. Also sidenote: there was no real point in her mom, you really could have completely erased any and everything about her and the story would have held up the same. Everything about this story to me just didn't play out well. Jla has finally let me down, and it freaking sucks!

This is the book I'm just going to straight pretend Jla didn't write. If someone mentions it I'm going to play Calla and be super clueless and naive. I'm all up for girls relying somewhat on a man (IN STORIES!!!) but when all is said and done I like my leading ladies standing on their own two feet with no one holding them up. Calla could have been this character, but instead needed the semi stalker Jax to do her work for her. Sigh just Sigh.

3/10 Stars 
-Angela  

(Stay With Me BookDepo)