Title: All Good Things
Author: Jodie Beau
Publication: January 2014
When I read it: February 2014
My Rating: 4 Stars
Series / Stand Alone: Series
- The Good Life
- All Good Things
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All Good Things are wild and free.
Roxie has plans. It’s the last summer before college graduation. By this time next year she’ll be living in the “real” world; ie: paying bills, searching for a job that doesn’t require an apron, and maybe even sleeping on a bed that doesn’t turn into a couch. If there’s ever a time to be fun, irresponsible and reckless, it’s now.
But things don’t always go as planned.
Before the summer has even started, Roxie makes a discovery that breaks her heart and shatters her confidence. Her hopes of having the Best Summer Ever go straight in the trash. Forget the beach. Forget the bonfires. Forget summer altogether.
If only her childhood friend, Jake, would let her be. His contagious smile keeps popping up and dragging her to every social event in Ann Arbor. Reluctant at first, his happy-go-lucky attitude becomes an addiction. It isn’t long before Roxie starts to wonder if her longtime friend might be the perfect cure for her heartbreak. This summer might be good after all.
But All Good Things must come to an end.
**All Good Things is an NA prequel to the contemporary 2013 release The Good Life. The books can be read in either order, or as stand-alones.**
Once again Jodie Beau delivered a story that quickly has you emotionally invested but keeps things light and thoroughly hilarious. I can’t tell you the number of times All Good Things had me laughing. But I also found my heart breaking at times.
All Good Things is a look back at the infamous summer that we learned about in The Good Life. Roxie is home for the summer but lacks the excitement of a college student during the summer. Mainly because she has recently experienced a breakup that has left her world turned upside down. While my heart was broken for Roxie, it was her look back on all the warning signs that had me rolling. While her summer doesn’t start out very thrilling, Jake rushes in to get Roxie out of her funk. And as expected, they have a chemistry that is undeniable. And I’ll just leave it at that.
So…Jake Odom. I don’t know that I have enough words to explain my love for him. He is so perfect and I loved that we got a chance to get in his head. My eternal love for him had me sobbing like a little baby during the prologue. Luckily, he had a smile back on my face quickly there after. He is without a doubt at the top of my best book boyfriends list.
While I struggled with my feelings for Roxie in the beginning of The Good Life, I loved her throughout this one. You could definitely still see the diva side of her. But she was completely likable.
I loved getting a look back how things went down that summer. However, even though I know how things turn out, the epilogue had me depressed. I guess I’ll just have to go back and reread The Good Life so that I can feel better. I truly enjoyed this story and highly recommend it. The greatest thing about it was that it can be read before or after The Good Life. So, don’t worry if you haven’t read The Good Life, you can jump right into this one without skipping a beat!
EXCERPT:
I pushed my plate away. “What’s your excuse then?”
He looked surprised by my boldness. “My excuse for what?”
“Flings.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Roxanne. I just have a short attention span. I get bored easily. I can’t even commit to the same radio station to listen to an entire song. I have to check the other stations to make sure I’m not missing anything better playing somewhere else.”
“And by the time you realize there isn’t anything better on the other channels, the song you liked on the first channel is over and you missed out.”
“I’m just waiting for the right one. When all the newness wears off and she stops shaving and starts wearing boring underwear that doesn’t even match, and I still want to be around her, I’ll stop. It just hasn’t happened yet.”
The waitress brought the check over and Jake grabbed it. “I’ve got this.”
“You better,” I said with a sweet smile. “You’re the one who made me come.”
“I really wish you would not say things like that,” he said. He looked pained. “Now we have to sit here for ten more minutes while I imagine something disturbing. Like my mother taking a shit.” He closed his eyes and tilted his head down toward the table to visualize.
I gasped. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? “Dude! You’re so gross.”
He lifted his head, opened his eyes, and gave me a wicked grin. “Just kidding.”
He paused. “Partially. I’m partially kidding. Semi kidding. Half kidding.”
OMIGOD! “Are we really sitting here talking about the current condition of your penis?”
“I guess we are. Is that weird?”
I looked up at the ceiling as I thought about it. It didn’t feel weird. “Is it weird that it doesn’t feel weird?” I asked.
“Hmm, yeah, kind of.”
“Should we go now?” I asked quickly.
“Can I carry your purse for you?”
GIVEAWAY:
PLAYLIST:
ABOUT JODIE BEAU:
I’m a wife, mom, waitress, book nerd, Chapstick addict, and a really bad driver who still believes in happy endings and can’t walk in high heels. Writing is what I do when I’m avoiding other things…like cleaning.
I once had big dreams of being a Hollywood screenwriter.
But then I met a boy and got distracted.
Three years later we met another boy, this one even cuter.
The three of us are now living happily ever after in the Detroit area. All Good Things is my second novel. And our house is kind of a mess :)
