Review: City Love (City Love #1) by Susane Colasanti

City Love (City Love #1) by Susane Colasanti

Publication Date: April 21, 2015
Page Count: 336
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: eArc received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are living together in New York City the summer before their freshman year of college begins. With no parents, no rules, and an entire city to explore, these three girls are on the verge of the best summer of their lives.

Sadie is a native New Yorker. She is hopeful, romantic, and an eternal optimist who is ready to find her soul mate. Then she meets her dream boy: cute, funny, and quirky in all the right ways. The chemistry between them is unreal. Could he be the one?

Darcy is a free spirit from SoCal with rebellious tendencies and unlimited financial resources. Moving to New York City is just another adventure for her. Darcy wants this summer to be all about boy adventures—nothing serious. But how much fun is too much?

Rosanna leaves Chicago for NYC so she can put her past behind her and reinvent herself. The only thing standing in her way is the grand total of seventy-three cents she has saved. Then she meets a guy who wants to show her the glamorous side of New York—a side that she would never get to experience on her own. If Rosanna doesn't resist, she may find herself in city love.

Told from alternating points of view, City Love captures the moments in each girl's life when everything is thrilling, amazing, and terrifying all at once . . . in a way it will never be again.

Unfortunately, this book did nothing for me. I didn't care for the characters, and the story really lacked substance. I don't know if it was because I expected so much more, but City Love was really disappointing to me.

Told in alternating chapters, I found it was pretty easy to keep track of which girl’s story I was reading. For the most part I thought the girls were different enough, but at times they seemed like some weird combination of each other because they had the same thoughts and feelings. All 3 girls were likable, but they were also immature and quite naïve. I thought they had too much of a romantic outlook on life, and they needed a huge dose of reality. I also didn't like how absolutely boy crazy they were.

I really didn't feel anything for the boys. I thought they were stereotypes, and most of what happened with them was quite predictable.

I read her blog, so I can fully understand the love that Susane Colasanti has for New York, and it really comes through in this story. I just had a problem with how the city love took over the story and was bigger than the girls and their friendship.

I expected so much more than 3 silly girls who talk a big show, but end up being defined by their relationships with boys. I hope things change in the next book, because I really would like to see the girls grow as characters, learn how to stand on their own, and figure out what they truly want for themselves. I've read other Colasanti books that I enjoyed more, but I'm still willing to continue reading this series to find out what happens next.

If you have read any of Susane Colasanti's books before, then you may enjoy reading City Love (if you can get past the insta-friendship, insta-love, and soul mate references.)

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars