*I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review*
Cami Broussard has her future all figured out. She'll finish her senior year of high school, then go to work full-time as an apprentice chef in her father's French restaurant, alongside her boyfriend, Luke. But then twenty-year-old ex-Marine Julian Wyatt comes to live with Cami's family while recovering from serious injuries. And suddenly Cami finds herself questioning everything she thought she wanted.
Julian's all attitude, challenges and intense green-brown eyes. But beneath that abrasive exterior is a man who just might be as lost as Cami's starting to feel. And Cami can't stop thinking about him. Talking to him. Wanting to kiss him. He's got her seriously stirred up. Her senior year has just gotten a lot more complicated….
Review:
Everything up until now has been quite the same in Cami's life. Going to school, work at the restaurant, meet up with her boyfriend Luke and hang out with her best friend Taryn. So senior year shouldn't be different, except what she didn't expect was having to give up her ground-floor bedroom to her step-cousin. Julian has been in a car bombing in Afghanistan, where he lost the lower part of his right leg. So you can imagine what a bottle of sunshine he is right now.He and Cami don't get along at all. Every interaction ends up with them yelling at each other and once in a while there might be some throwing food involved. Since Julian is mostly at home, Cami makes sure she's away as often as she can. But sometimes you can't avoid home and when Julian decides to start acting civilised again, they might get along really well. As in really, really well. Meanwhile it seems Luke is already halfway forgotten, which she feels guilty about.
So Cami thought she had it all figured out, but it seems senior year brings along a lot of changes. College or no college? Working at her dad restaurant for the rest of her life? Julian or Luke? All questions she needs to figure out and something she tries to avoid as long as possible, creating loads of drama.
I liked the point where Cami was in her life. She has to make all these decisions that will have a huge impact on her future. The changes between the certainty and the doubt are well enough to give you a whiplash but it's not unrealistic and that's what I like about it so much.
Julian, I loved. Not the a-hole parts of him, but when he decides to stop sulking and being moody he can be quite charming and funny. I do felt like some things were missing here. There isn't that much detail on his recovery both physically and mentally. It is shown throughout the story, in the way he opens up more and lets Cami get closer to him. Still I've read other similar stories and the struggles the ex-military/marine... have in those are much harder.
I do get the sense of the growth of Cami as a character and the relationship between Cami and Julian, but for Julian as a character I don't really feel that. There are struggles, still I feel those could have been explored more. Don't get me wrong, the guy is total dream worthy. He really knows to say all the right things, he's beyond HOT and when he puts on the charm, no sane woman would resist him.
Now the attraction between Julian and Cami is just smouldering. "He tastes so fine I hope nothing ever passes my lips again. I mean, what good is food when you can taste this? A mouth so rich and laced with hints of..." That pretty much sums it up, right?
Stir Me Up was a good book and I really liked the characters. There are a couple of things that could have been better as mentioned above. In the end I loved Julian's personality, the chemistry between him and Cami is very real. There is drama involved, but it's not over top. So I'm giving Stir Me Up 3.5 stars!
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Cami’s Cookbook Pack
Le Petit Paris: French Finger Food by Nathalie Benezet
500 Soups by Susannah Blake
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Julian’s Late-Night Pack
George Noory’s Late-Night Snacks by George Noory
Dinner and a Movie by Katherine Bebo
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Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor
Cutie Pies by Dani Cone
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