Review: Finding It by Cora Carmack

Title: Finding It
Author: Cora Carmack
Series: Losing It, book #3
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: October 15, 2013
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find where you truly belong...

Most girls would kill to spend months traveling around Europe after college graduation with no responsibility, no parents, and no-limit credit cards. Kelsey Summers is no exception. She's having the time of her life . . . or that's what she keeps telling herself.

It's a lonely business trying to find out who you are, especially when you're afraid you won't like what you discover. No amount of drinking or dancing can chase away Kelsey's loneliness, but maybe Jackson Hunt can. After a few chance meetings, he convinces her to take a journey of adventure instead of alcohol. With each new city and experience, Kelsey's mind becomes a little clearer and her heart a little less hers. Jackson helps her unravel her own dreams and desires. But the more she learns about herself, the more Kelsey realizes how little she knows about Jackson.

From the outside, Finding It sounded like a fun book, one that would have me cracking up like the first two books in this series about a group of actors on the cusp of graduation and trying to find themselves.  But this book dealt with some serious issues.  The fact that this book is no laughing matter had me taken aback, especially since out of all the characters in the previous books, I thought Kelsey was the most fun-loving and easy-going of the bunch.

But appearances can be deceiving.  You can just look at Kelsey and Hunt in this book to see that.  Both have secrets and deeper issues to come to grips with, but in the process, they kind of lose themselves in each other.  I think Jackson Hunt may be my favorite love interest from Cora Carmack thus far. Yes, even more so than the accented Garrick.  I love a tough guy with a softer side, and that describes Hunt to a tee.  He was a little possessive at times, and it kind of bothered me that Kelsey let him get away with it, but considering her upbringing, I guess it was to be expected.

Kelsey, on the other hand, was probably my least favorite protagonist in the whole series.  She was so hard to connect with, and not simply because of the methods with which she handled her own problems.  She was a bit needy but also a bit forceful, and if I hadn't seen her as Bliss's best friend in Losing It, I might have said she didn't have any redeeming qualities, especially with the way she treated people while on her travels, going so far as to refer to her hostel "friends" as cardboard cut-outs.  Well, gee, no wonder this trip isn't turning out to be the soul-searching experience you were hoping for.

The romance was hawt, I'll give it that, once it finally got rolling.  It was obvious that the attraction was immediate and went both ways, but it took a bit for the couple to actually get together.  There are secrets on both sides, though I don't think it will be difficult for most readers to figure out what they are early on.  And one party simply wants to run from theirs, while the other does their best to keep theirs buried.  It's not an "issues book", but both characters do have their share of them.

Though the storyline was predictable, it didn't bother me to know what was coming.  I mean, honestly, I don't really read these books for their superb stories.  It's more about the characters and their interactions for me, and unlike the first two books in this series, I just didn't have as much fun with these characters.  I'm still a fan, though, and I will still be checking out the novella from Hunt's point-of-view...yum.

Don't forget to check out the giveaway Cora is hosting to celebrate the release of her newest novel!

the LOSING IT series

About the Author:

Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She's done a multitude of things in her life-- boring jobs (like working retail), fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, Losing It, is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

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