Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison

About the book

Anything to Have You is a young adult book by Paige Harbison. The book was published by Mira Ink on 7^th February and the book is 368 pages long. I received an e-book for review through NetGalley.

Synopsis

Natalie and Brooke and been friends since they can remember and always have each other’s backs. Although they’re best friends, they have completely different personalities. Natalie is the shy, quiet one who is college bound while Brooke is the life and soul of the party.

Natalie finally gives in and goes with Brooke to a party but she gets drunk, wakes up next to Brooke’s boyfriend and cannot remember what happened. Both girls question what really happened at the party that night and it could ruin everything they’ve ever had.

What I thought

Anything to Have You is told through a dual narrative of best friends Natalie and Brooke. Not only do they both tell the story but the time jumps between their Junior and Senior years of high school. To start with, I didn’t really get on with the way in which the story was told. I would have much preferred to have a background given on Natalie and Brooke’s friendship and then for the plot to run smoothly instead. I didn’t mind both of them telling the story but the time jumps broke everything up too much.

As protagonists go, Natalie was sweet enough, if a bit bland. She was quite straight-laced and didn’t party and get drunk like her best friend did. Natalie’s only vice seemed to be Brooke’s boyfriend, Aiden. It was clear from early on that she had a massive crush on him and wanted him first but never acted on it on account of Brooke. She secretly hates the way that Aiden is treated by Brooke but never says anything.

Brooke was actually really, really annoying. She is the girl who seems to have everything but wants anything else instead. She isn’t happy with her boyfriend most of the time and always complains that she wants more. Honestly, I felt like she deserved the bad hands she was dealt in this book because of the way she acted most of the time. As she tells part of the story, I found myself wanting more of Natalie instead of Brooke.

As plots go, this one isn’t anything special. Anything to Have You tells the done too many times story of friends fighting over a boy and it doesn’t really bring in anything new. Natalie finally gives in and goes to a party, gets wasted and wakes up next to a boy… Aiden. Aiden knows exactly what happened but Natalie can’t remember anything. The problem for me was that she didn’t really seem to care, although she clearly knew that she’d had sex and couldn’t remember it. Her actions didn’t fit with her personality at all.

Although the majority of the book bugged me, Paige Harbison really did try in parts with this one. There are times when the plot goes to darker, scarier places and it goes much deeper than just a broken friendship. However, some of the events didn’t quite fit with the rest of the book and that was extremely unfortunate. This book had promise that it didn’t quite live up to.