Sab The Book Eater: (ARC) Book Review: Addicted to You by Krista & Becca Ritchie

Addicted to You (Addicted #1)
by Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Published: July 1st 2013 by K.B. Ritchie (first published June 13th 2013)

No one would suspect shy Lily Calloway’s biggest secret. While everyone is dancing at college bars, Lily stays in the bathroom. To get laid. Her compulsion leads her to one-night stands, steamy hookups and events she shamefully regrets. The only person who knows her secret happens to have one of his own.

Loren Hale’s best friend is his bottle of bourbon. Lily comes at a close second. For three years, they’ve pretended to be in a real relationship, hiding their addictions from their families. They’ve mastered the art of concealing flasks and random guys that filter in and out of their apartment.

But when they go on a family boat trip, surrounded by open seas and limited male bodies in sight, Lily’s confronted with a big fear. Only one guy onboard can fill her addiction, and she’s sworn off going there with Loren Hale ever again.

Now the only person who can truly help her can barely help himself.

I honestly thought I would like this book. The story deals with alcohol and sex addiction. It's out there, you know? I was interested in how the authors would tell the story of two addicts. I wanted to see how they would make me feel for the characters. Unfortunately there wasn't much to feel for. I was so close to not finishing the book but I had to see the ending. That was a major buzz kill by the way but I'll discuss it further later.

Now I wouldn't know how Lily feels, constantly wanting sex every minute, because a) I've never been in Lily's shoes and b) I don't personally know anyone who's been there. So Lily's addiction was an exaggeration to me. It's funny to think her addiction's exaggerated because the very idea of being addicted to something means wanting it at any given time of the day and being resistant to help. It seemed like an exaggeration of an already extreme addiction because I didn't see enough background to her story. There's an explanation but I feel like it wasn't enough to beef up Lily's story. The same goes for Logan's. I also didn't like Lily's voice. There wasn't anything about it that made me sympathize for her. I get that they're addicted and that they're stubborn because of that. But since I couldn't really see things from their perspective, it was hard to feel any sort of positive feeling towards them. I was just pissed off the whole time.

For a book about a sex addict you'd think this has a lot of action in it. It doesn't. Yes, you read that right. It doesn't. It barely has any kind of action in fact. I'm not really looking for steamy scenes (don't give me that look! I'm serious) but I found it ironic how clean this was. I think diving further into the sex scenes (at least one of them) would shed some light into the complicated mind of a sex addict. I'm not a writer but I'm pretty sure there are ways to explore the topic by using those key scenes.

It frustrated me to know that Addicted To You is the first book in a trilogy. A trilogy! Because everybody's writing trilogies now, right? How far can you take a story about a couple of addicts? I read the entire thing only to find that it doesn't end there. I knew I should've DNF-ed this. It's bad enough that they bounced back and forth in the first book and that it took a complete stranger to turn things around. I can't imagine what could possibly go down in the next books. I couldn't care less if they don't recover or don't end up together. I don't see the point in stretching out a story like this. It's not, in any way, gripping. No, this really isn't for me.

My Rating