Review: The Natural History of Us by Rachel Harris (The Fine Art of Pretending, #2)

Summary

(from goodreads)

One class assignment. One second chance at love. The school player is all in. Now he needs to win back the sweet commitment girl who's forever owned his heart. 

Justin Carter has a secret. He's not the total player Fairfield Academy believes him to be. Not really. In fact, he used to be a one-woman guy...and his feelings for her never went away. Too bad he broke her heart three years ago and made sure to ruin any chance she'd ever forgive him. 

Peyton Williams is a liar. She pretends to be whole, counting down the days until graduation and helping her parents at the family ranch. But the truth is, she's done everything she can to get over Justin, and salvation is just around the corner. With graduation one short month away, she'll soon break free from the painful memories and start her life fresh. Of course, she has to get through working with him on one last assignment first. 

For Justin, nothing ever felt as right as being with Peyton, and now that fate's given him a shot at redemption, he's determined to make the most of it. And for Peyton...well, Justin Carter has always been her kryptonite.

Read from: March 1st to March 3, 2016

Read on: Owned ARC Paperback

Review:

I will admit that I stalked Rachel for this book until she finally got tired of me and handed me a copy hahaha No, I’d like to think that she liked me and offered me an advanced copy of this book for that. :)

So once I got back from Apollycon and finished another ARC, I dove right into this book and fell in love with this story.

First warning… If you haven’t read The Fine Art of Pretending… Well go and read it now and stop reading my review because even if I might not really spoil anything from the first book (who I am kidding, yes there will be some minor spoilers), the desire you might get for starting this book might be too strong and you need to read the first book first. End of discussion lol

Okay, let’s be more serious now. So I really sort of liked Justin in the first book and I was happy we got to read his story this time around. I added the word “sort” only because I didn’t want him with Aly, but like always, you want him to have his happy ending and I was happy when Rachel announced that this book was going to be about him.

So let’s start this review for real…

If I had to imagine something about Justin’s past relationships, it wouldn’t have been what I read in this book and I’m glad that Rachel Harris was able to surprise me with this book. I really liked that we got to see more behind the player’s mask. This is really a good case of “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. So even if he was labeled as a player, I would have never believed Justin to be a bad guy. He has always been well liked and I was really intrigued to find out what happened between him and Peyton to cause such a downfall between them. Because from the beginning of this book, you know she doesn’t like him. Well… It’s more like she is mad at him for something. If the cause is known quite quickly, it took a trip to memory land throughout the book to understand the evolution of their relationship and its downfall; to see where it gone wrong and why it should be salvaged.

Peyton’s life was far from being easy and to see how she changed from the event that changed her future to meeting Justin and then from the moment things fell apart between them until the present is quite a shocker. I liked her character very much because in some way, we all relate to her. We all have this point in our life that we just finally break no matter how positive we want to be and that's exactly what happened with her. Throughout the book, you will see a change in her personality, but I feel like you can only connect with her more because of it. Even if some events that happened in her life won’t happen to everyone, the feelings, the thoughts and the reactions are typically teenage-like and you can only remember when you were like this or if you are a teenager yourself, perhaps, you will recognize yourself in this.

Justin is set to get her back, but nothing will be easy and he knows he has a lot to prove to win her back. But even though this is his goal, this book is so much more than that. As he tries to get closer to Peyton again, it brings out a lot of issues back to the surface for him. Things he thought he had dealt with to realize that maybe he hadn't really. You learn a lot about the Justin that not many people know. Peyton was that person who got to know him and I feel that’s probably why these two always gravitated around one another.

If I had to describe this book in one word; like for me what it all sums up to, that word would be trust. Trust is a major theme in this book. From thrusting others to trusting yourself, this is what both main characters will have to learn throughout this book.

So this review might or might not be helpful; I might even have confused you, but I just need to tell you that you need to read this amazing book. You will be captivated from the beginning and you will want to know what happens next.

Do I want more books in this series? Definitely.

And I’m already aware of whom I want the next book to be about and even told Rachel about it. I really hope my review will make you want to read this series and ask for more. I know once you start this, you won’t want it to finish. There will always be a character you want her next book to be about.

I was giving an advance copy of this book by the author in exchange of an honest review.