Review: The Story of You and Me by Pamela DuMond

The Story of You and Me by Pamela DuMond 
Release Date: November 12, 2013
Pagecount: 286
Source: Author in exchange for an honest review
Buy It: Amazon | B&N

Description from Goodreads:

Recommended for New Adult and Mature Young Adult Readers
*
HEA for Sophie and Alejandro!
*
She's driven to save her life. He's haunted by breaking one. Some secrets are risky to share. But nothing's more powerful than falling in love...

Nineteen-year-old Sophie has the kind of hope that makes her do weird things--like leave her family and friends behind in her small hometown and travel thousands of miles to a strange city--Los Angeles.

She didn't plan on getting into the middle of a bar fight on the USCLA campus her first night in town. She didn't want to be rescued by twenty-one-year-old Alejandro, the hottest guy she's ever met. She has no time to fall for a guy because her stakes are high--life and death.

Sophie's starting a promising, experimental USCLA Medical study that could heal her debilitating disease. But California's filled with all kinds of alternative healers offering medical miracles. When she ventures on her own to find them, she quickly discovers that L.A.'s a tough city, with bad guys more than happy to take advantage of her.

She hires Alejandro to be her driver and her bodyguard. Their journeys take them to sunny beaches, dicey ghettos, campus hang-outs, gang-infested hoods and celebrity parties. And she learns that healing doesn't always come the way you think you need it.

Sophie's healing is six-foot-two-inches tall, has stunning hazel eyes, black, shiny hair and a rock solid chest that shelters her. Her healing is a smart, gorgeous Alpha Boy with a killer sense of humor--Alejandro.

As they fall in love, she realizes Alejandro isn't your typical college party boy--he has a dangerous past. And Sophie isn't the only one who keeps secrets.

A Story of Hope. A Story of Love. A Story of Redemption.

My expectations for this novel were kind of simple. I just thought this would be a cute romance that I'd swoon over once or twice or several times. I imagined this would be the love story of Alejandro and Sophie. And I was sort of right. Half way. But this book also told how they both moved on from their own individual issues that held them back. Mixing together the elements I expected with the elements I did not expect, I ended up really liking this book.

Sophie was a generally good character. She was strong, she was pretty self-aware, and she was kind. However, she had this habit of jumping to conclusions that got on my nerves. Instead of talking things out, she automatically assumed things and left or something, and I was not okay with that. Plus, she did her fair share of secret keeping. Like, to an annoying level because Alejandro was so accepting. She had literally NO reason to be so uptight with him, especially after he opened up about what was up with him.

Alejandro was magnificent. From the very beginning, I was a total fan. Like, for real. I'm not going to say I was never suspicious or whatever, because he DID leave abruptly a couple times, but he never really gave me a reason to be jealous, and that is a HUGE deal for me since I am the most jealous person ever. Even with book characters. I just am. But Alejandro was great. And sweet. And protective. I heart him. He had his issues, but his secret keeping wasn't as bothersome as Sophie's. Alejandro didn't really let his get in the way of the relationship. So, as I said, I am a fan.

The romance was just as sweet and cute as I'd thought it would be. I have no qualms with how that played out, save for Sophie messing things up. But at least she owned up to it, so I suppose she deserves some points for that. Though the romance was nice, the aspects I wasn't expecting--the deeper ones--sort of dragged the story down a bit. I'm a sucker for sickness stories just like anyone else. I find them interesting, and they can be sweet, and even though I cry, I get SO into them. But I felt like this one never made it to the emotional level a story like that needs. Maybe I never connected with Sophie enough? I don't know, but it didn't work very well for me. 

Another thing that didn't bode well with me--some of the narration. The story is told from Sophie's POV, and that actually turned out to be pretty amusing. But it also meant we were in Sophie's head jumping to her conclusions with her. Generally speaking, this isn't a huge problem. But at some points, Sophie was moving on in a direction I'd never even considered. Like when she asked Alex why everyone called him a driver. I didn't remember EVERYONE calling him a driver, nor was I interested enough to ask about it. I understand that we needed to know his driver status for the rest of the story to work out, but it was an odd jump in conversation, and that happens more than once throughout the story with different topics.

Overall, The Story of You and Me is a cute, fun story. I highly enjoyed the romance, and had a genuinely good time reading this book. There are some flaws within, but they weren't enough to make me dislike the book, and I'd say they were worth dealing with to get the love story aspect. Goodness knows I'm a sucker for a good love story ;)