Review: Pretending Hearts by: Heather Topham Wood

Pretending Hearts (Falling for Autumn #2) by: Heather Topham Wood (Nov. 2014)

218 e-book pages

Genre: Romance/New Adult

Source: I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thanks Heather!

Purchase: Amazon| Barnes and Noble

Goodreads Summary: Delia Bridges is done living in the shadows cast by her ex-convict father and her football star brother. Attending Cook University will finally give her the chance to be her own person and hopefully find love at the same time. When she meets Wyatt Johnston, she knows immediately he’s the one.

Wyatt fulfills all of Delia’s requirements for the perfect man: he’s rich, handsome, and a talented forward for Cook’s soccer team. However, Wyatt turns out not to be the man she thought. When he dumps her and simultaneously ruins her reputation, she has to start over once again.

Levi Caldwell has every quality Delia doesn’t want in a boyfriend. He has no money, works for the maintenance staff at Cook, and has no problem sharing his judgmental opinions about how Delia is living her life. Despite her growing attraction for the tattooed drummer, Delia tries to avoid Levi. But when a new crisis threatens to destroy all she has rebuilt, she finds Levi is the only person she can trust.

***Standalone New Adult Romance-Ages 17+ Due to Strong Language and Sexual Situations***

My Review

Pretending Hearts is the first novel I’ve read by Wood that wasn’t part of her Second Sight series. I don't know why I waited so long to read more of her books. Pretending Hearts turned out to be precisely what I needed to read while I was stuck inside on a cold winter day.While reading Pretending Hearts I could see that Wood has grown as an author since her first books, thus making me only that much more excited to read all of her books at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I do want to state that I did not read the first book, Falling for Autumn, before reading this one. This didn’t affect me at all since Pretending Hearts can be read as a stand-alone novel. With that being said, I do plan on going back and reading the first one because I enjoyed this book a great deal and want to read Blake and Autumn’s story for myself.

Pretending Hearts read like a real life college story, and I liked that. I felt like I was back at college. It’s always nice to reminisce now and again.

Delia, the main character, may not begin as my favorite character, but she warmed up to me. She is a little frustrating at first and kind of childish, but she does have some nice character development so I didn’t have to worry about those unlikable qualities the whole time I was reading. As for Delia's first love interest, I didn’t like Wyatt at all. I knew right away he was going to be bad news, and this kept me from becoming invested in the book until a handful of chapters later when we meet Levi. I did LOVE Levi right away. He is a genuine nice guy (also very attractive and a drummer) and I really think Delia deserves him. Not to mention that since she makes Levi happy as well I feel like the relationship is well rounded, if that makes sense. I liked their chemistry and would even read another book just about them. Not only do they have their cute moments, but they have their steamy moments as well.

Although this book had a more depressing plot line full of adult responsibilities and harsh gossip among other things, there were still some light-hearted moments that made me laugh. One more thing that I also think it is important to tell you about this book is that there was the perfect amount of drama. A lot of times new adult romances have way too much drama in them, but I don’t think that line was crossed in this instance.

Pretending Hearts is a quick and enjoyable read. It is a semi-typical new adult novel, but with a romance I actually cared about and a good group of minor characters I thought it was very good.