Book Review: The Only One by Magan Vernon

The Only One by Magan Vernon

Paperback, 302 pages

Published: October 10th 2013 by Beautifully Broken Books 

Review Copy: Purchased

Purchase: Amazon -- Barnes & Noble

 

Description from Goodreads:

Honor student, manager at the campus coffee shop, owner of an impressive sweater collection – Melanie Wilder has it all together. Then John “John Boy” Walden strolls into her life wearing nothing more than an impish grin and all-too-revealing loin cloth.

Soon, make-out sessions replace homework, lust triumphs over work. And to further crumble her perfect world, an unexpected phone call threatens to take away everything she’s worked for.

Now, as Melanie struggles to pick up the pieces, she realizes that John may be the only one to put her life back together…unless he shatters it first.

**This is not a sequel to The Only Exception. It's a companion novel with two characters from the first book. You don't need to read The Only Exception to understand this book.*

My Review:
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Actual Rating: More like 3.8 Stars

I’ve been following Magan’s work since she released How to Date an Alien in 2011. Her books are enjoyable, and I’m usually able to tear through them in one sitting (two at the max).

Now, I haven’t read The Only Exception (I know, I’m slacking), but since this was a companion novel, and I’d been hearing great things, I decided to start reading it last night when I found myself desperate for a break from editing. I wasn’t planning on reading this book for some time since my review pile is huge at the moment, but before I knew it, it was going on four o’clock in the morning and I was already more than halfway through the book. Needless to say, I liked The Only One. I didn’t love it, but I liked it.

I think the reason that I didn’t love The Only One was because, after a while, things did become a bit repetitive. There was so much back and forth between them. Now, don’t get me wrong. I can understand that Melanie was dealing with something serious, but Mel’s fights with John seemed to constantly be about the same thing time and time again and instead of sitting down and talking about it that night at the roller rink, she pushes him away. Fear can really blind a person, I get that, but the constant fighting made it hard for me to connect with Melanie as a character.

But that seemed to be my main problem with The Only One.
Other than the repetition and predictability with their relationship, The Only One did have a lot of fantastic elements to offer readers. One example being John Boy (he's certainly swoon-worthy). Another thing worth noting was the topic of cervical cancer. I know that may put some people off, but I’m actually kind of glad that Magan wrote a story about something so important. It also helps to make this book standout against other NA titles.

Would I recommend this book? Yeah. I did have my problems with it, but I still really enjoyed it.

View all my reviews