BOOK REVIEW: MORE THAN HER BY JAY MCLEAN

Title: More than Her

Author: Jay McLean

Genre: Romance, New Adult

Published on: November 18, 2013, self-published

Please note that this is the second book in the series and should not be read prior to reading More Than This.

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
For every choice you make there are rewards, or there are consequences.
It was my choice to walk away the first time. And my choice to chase her the second.
But sometimes you don't get a choice, and all you get are the consequences.
Unless that someone is Logan Matthews.

Because loving him didn't give me the strength to walk away.
It didn't give me the courage to fight for him.
And when it was over, all it gave me was a broken heart.
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

Despite having liked More than This and More than Forever so much, I’ve hesitated to read this book. It’s part of a romance series, and each book focuses on a particular couple. Jake and Micky were great, just like Cameron and Lucy. More than Her focuses on the character of Logan Matthews. He was introduced in the previous book, as one of Jake’s best friends. Part of the reason I put this book off for so long is that Logan’s, well, a bit of a jerk. He loves girls, but isn’t as good at treating them well as Jake and Cameron are. I also confess that Logan seemed so much like high school me, except with the jerkiness dialed down two or three notches.

Like me, Logan absolutely worships women. He is very eager to meet the girl who’ll sweep him off his feet, like Micky did Jake. Actually, Logan happened to have met Micky first (by a few minutes). He had a big crush on her, but backed off as soon as Jake showed interest in her. It didn’t help that Logan made a very poor first impression on Micky. Things turned out more than fine in the end. Logan eventually meets another girl who gets way deeper under his skin than even Micky did. Pity that he once again had bad luck when it comes to how they met. It started out okay, but Logan seriously misread the situation and royally screwed things up.

I’ve read some reviews for More than Her that avoid mentioning who Logan’s love interest is. I do not consider it a spoiler (at least not a big one), so I’ll talk about her using her name. She’s Amanda, a girl from Micky’s circle. At first, Amanda seems like a really cool, outgoing kind of girl. But she really doesn’t take it kindly when Logan makes a move on her too soon. He definitely isn’t good at nonverbal signals. Or maybe Logan is just too eager to have a girlfriend of his own that he’ll act way sooner than most guys normally would. Either way, this makes it very hard for Logan to get back in Amanda’s good graces, let alone woo her. It speaks a lot that he never gives up, certain that Amanda is the one for him.

The story in this book is split into two timelines. Each chapter focuses on one of those. They are also written in either Logan’s or Amanda’s points of view. The first timeline is from their high school days, when Logan and Amanda met. This was after the tragedy that struck Micky’s family. It shows all the efforts to which Logan goes to win Amanda over. That’s all I’ll say to let readers see what happens for themselves. As the synopsis hints, though, Logan manages to sabotage himself. Flash forward to the present, where Logan sees Amanda again after an untold event that drove them apart. This time Logan is even more determined to make it up to Amanda. He’ll fight for another chance at winning her affection.

Although Logan and Amanda are the protagonists this time, other characters from More than This have prominent roles. Micky and Jake are two of them, being Logan’s best friends. There’s a subplot in particular that affects Micky. It was surprising to me, to say the least. I won’t spoil what happens in this instance, but it made me think of the phrase “it’s a small world”. The other two characters who return are Cameron and Lucy. They are also part of Logan’s and Jake’s friend group. Lucy spends a lot of time with Micky, as they are both avid readers. Amanda joins them from time to time as well. Just because she and Logan fell out didn’t mean Amanda stopped seeing his friends. They are hers too.

In the end, my apprehension at reading this book was silly. More than Her was a really good entry in this series. Logan’s got more depth than I thought at first. Yeah, he’s a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he has more in common with Jake and Cameron than I expected. This is serious character growth, considering Logan was afraid of the idea that one day, he’d find his own Micky or Lucy. He ended up finding her in Amanda…or did he? Amanda is a tough cookie. She’s a good girl, but is a bit jaded and wary of guys. It also doesn’t help that she recently ended a long, significant relationship. Amanda knows what love is, so Logan has a high standard to meet. Will he get the girl? You’ll have to read the book to find out. I personally enjoyed it.

My rating: ★★★★ 1/2

4.5 stars - A fantastic page-turner!