REVIEW - Collide by Gail McHugh

After the death of her mother, Emily Cooper heads off to start the rest of her life in New York City. She will be rooming with her best friend, and her successful wall street boyfriend Dillon will be by her side.  When Emily meets Gavin Blake through her work as a waitress, she immediately takes notice of “Mr. Tall, Dark, and Fuckable Handsome.”  What starts as simple appreciation becomes more complicated when Emily discovers Gavin Blake is already entwined into her new world – as a best friend and client to her boyfriend, Dillon.  As the two spend more and more time together, Emily struggles with her intense new feelings for Gavin, and her love and loyalty to Dillon.

I WANTED to like this book.  I WANTED to love it. I had heard great things, read the swooning over Gavin,  seen the 350+ 5 star reviews on Amazon.  I thought this was a sure thing.  For me, it wasn’t.  While I’ll agree that Gavin is an interesting character and worth some leading man love, the story as a whole was far too cookie cutter for me to really enjoy.

I knew this wasn’t going to be what I hoped when  the very first thoughts of Gavin’s we were privy to were, “Though his father had told him stories about it happening, until that fateful afternoon, Gavin Blake had believed that love at first sight didn’t exist.”  It goes on to say, “…he felt drawn to her as if a rope bound to his waist, and she was on the other end pulling him to her.”    She sees him and is immediately afterwards telling her friend, “I don’t know; it was the strangest reaction I’ve ever had with someone.”  *sigh* Yes. It is one of those.  They see each other, are drawn to each other, and just can’t stay away.  There is the motivation for the rest of the book.

This book also includes a  successful, rich, leading man who always gets what he wants,  a working class unassuming leading lady who has more inner strength than she realizes,  ex’s who show up at inopportune times and of course are seen by the current love interest,  and a marriage that just  “can’t” be allowed to happen. Combined with the insta-attraction, I can’t live without this person after knowing them for three minutes, love at first sight, you have just about every romance cliché there is.

This book was well written, the sex was hot, but the story and the characters fell flat. It’s not that they weren’t good – but they were good the first time I saw them.  Now they just seem tired and uninventive to me.  I wanted to like this, I really did, but I need more from my books.  I’ll give it a 2.5, maybe stretch to a three simply for the decent writing.