The Vincent Boys - Abbi Glines

Pages: 258

Publisher: Hot Key Books

Release Date: 3^rd January 2013

Edition: Australian cover, paperback, review copy

Other titles in this Series: The Vincent Brothers (March 7^th)

Preacher’s daughter Ashton Gray is gorgeous, good and kind, and she’s dating Sawyer Vincent – handsome school quarterback and all-round gentleman, Sawyer’s perfect, and Ashton knows it.

But when Sawyer leaves town for the summer, Ashton gets to spending time with his cousin Beau. Unlike Sawyer, Beau is a bona fide bad boy – drinking, sleeping around and generally going the way of his white trash parents.

Ashton knows it’s wrong, but something about beau has her all hot and bothered. He’s bringing out the bad girl in this sweet southern belle.

Sultry, romantic, hotter than the Alabama sun – what will the Vincent boys do for you?

I was hesitant about The Vincent Boys. I’d heard equally fantastic and negative things about this as it overtook my Twitter feed and the blogs.

This was my first foray in to the new adult genre and I knew roughly what to expect so I have to admit that I went in expecting to love and hate this book with equal measure. And that happened. There were lots of things I didn’t like about The Vincent Boys, but I still ended up really enjoying it. Because of that, I decided that I would structure this review a little differently so I could properly and accurately get across how I feel about this book. So stick with me, and here you go!

THE NEGATIVES

One of the first things that struck me about The Vincent Boys were the clichés. A bad boy with a messed up childhood and a heart of gold, a preacher’s daughter with a bad side itching to get out and there was just the occasional phrase or line of dialogue that made me cringe slightly. Though strangely, these clichés were part of the charm and fun ease of the novel.

As I’d expected, the sex was explicit. That doesn’t bother me at all; I just thought that it wasn’t always necessary. There were some instances of it that I thought was put in purely because it could be and that took something away from it for me. It also seemed a little unrealistic for a completely inexperienced virgin, especially in light of the event that pushed Ash to take that step. It made me a little uncomfortable. I felt that they were both taking advantage of Ash’s emotional state and using it as an excuse to do what they did.

My final qualm is about Ash’s self-proclaimed ‘bad side’. I guess that it would be for a preacher’s daughter, but Ash’s desire to be herself, to pull pranks and feel desired are completely normal. It’s not like she wants to set fire to buildings or rob a bank, she’s just a seventeen-year-old girl who’s fed up of doing what she’s told without question.

THE POSITIVES

I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Vincent Boys is a dual narrative! Though not a normal one. The perspective sometimes changed during the middle of a chapter and it didn’t equally alternate, but I kind of liked that. It was a little unusual. There was also a subtle southern lilt running through the dialogue that when I noticed it, it was charming, especially the use of ‘y’all’ – love it.

One of the bits that made me like Ash, who actually got on my nerves a fair amount, was that she was willing to do what she thought and had been told would be best for Beau and Sawyer even though it wasn’t in her best interests. I respected that as I honestly don’t know if I would have been able to do the same if I was in her position.

I also thought the focus on how wrong it is to pretend to be someone you’re not to please someone you’re not was great. It pulled The Vincent Boys back in to familiar YA territory for me, which incidentally, if there wasn’t such graphic sex I would most definitely class this as YA. I think it’s an important thing to learn and I thought it was handled pretty well.

Also, Beau is hot. Seriously hot.

So there you go. I felt pretty conflicted about this novel, but I ended up really looking forward to reading The Vincent Brothers when it comes out. I’d be really interested to hear what you guys thought of The Vincent Boys.

Thank you to Hot Key Books for sending me a review copy.

Sophie