Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding, #1) by K.A. Linde - Review

Avoiding Commitment has been on the scene for a little while now and it’s creating a lot of buzz. I’d seen this book not only all over Amazon, but Goodreads as well. People are raving about how much they loved it.

Lexi has finally moved on from her tumultuous relationship with Jack. He’s the boy who always promises her truth, but seems to be hiding behind his candor. When it finally seems like she’s out of his grasp, she gets a phone call. Jack asks her to come down to Georgia to speak with his fiancé about their past relationship. She needs reassuring that her and Jack’s marriage won’t end in tragedy and betrayal. Lexi finally agrees and flies down to Atlanta into a world of lavish parties, country club brunches and heartbreak.

I’ve seen a lot of really crazy, obsessed reviews for Avoiding Commitment. That should have been red flag number one. When I scroll through Goodreads and find more pictures and GIFs than words in reviews, those books tend to lead to disappointment. Avoiding Commitmentdid just that.

The plot was completely all over the place. The story was peppered with annoyingly frequent flashbacks, thinly drawn together parallels and was entirely too long. I felt like the majority of the book was one giant rambling portrayl of Lexi making horribly bad decisions.

The writing was subpar. I know I’m no J.K. Rowling, but I write unedited book reviews... not novels that are sold. Even self-published should be corrected for errors. I’ve read many self-published novels that are polished and well written and so this aspect of Avoiding Committment was particulary disappointing.

Now for the characters. I’m all for the young, naive girl making a poor decision and finding her way out of her adolescent misbehaviors. I’m even great with giving that boy who did you wrong a second chance... but Lexi and Jack are dysfunctional to the nth degree. I cringed at not only their mistreatment of each other, but of those around them. They constantly cheat in their relationships and see very little wrong with their actions. Lexi is more concerned that Jack treats her like trash after they’ve slept together than the fact that she slept with an engaged man.

And Jack is just a jerk. That’s really all there is to say about him. He’s a guy who begs and preaches honesty but uses it as a crutch to live life as he sees fit, hiding behind the honesty when he hurts people. He wasn’t very well developed as a character which only further lead to the fact that I couldn’t see his point of view, or Lexi’s interest in him.

I rarely write super negative reviews, but this book really made me mad. Why did I continue to read it and not give it up? That’s a great question and I really don’t have the answer.  Maybe I had some misguided hope that it would turn out great? Overall, I wasn’t a fan of this one, but clearly this one has some followers.

1 out of 10

Happy Reading :)