(Four Letters #0.5)
Published: July 3rd 2013
Synopsis:
Eighteen-year-old Jade Reamer is a tough girl with a reputation to prove it. She loves three people and three people only: her brother, her boyfriend, and her best friend. Everyone else is irrelevant.
That is … until Reed enters the picture again.
Suddenly things start to spiral out of control and things aren’t as they seem. Life is no longer simply black and white, love versus hate. Suddenly, it’s hard to figure out which of those four letter words is true.
Especially when she can’t look away from those devil eyes.
I love you. I hate you. I love you. I hate you. Which is it? I don’t even know anymore.
Well, let’s find out.
My Rating: 
3.5/5 (Liked it)
Book Information
Publisher: Christina Channelle
Genre(s): Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Page Count: 102
Format: E-book
Note: I received a free digital copy of this book from Xpresso Book Tours via Smashwords in exchange for an honest review.
Hi! Today I have a review on Those Four Letter Words, the prequel novella to Jaded Little Lies. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant in reading this book, as I am with most NA books. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this one, and it was a quick, enjoyable read.
Quick Summary
This is a short novella written as a writing assignment on love and hate for Jade Reamer, an 18 year-old who went through lots of heartache in the past, and whose life is getting no easier. When her brother’s best friend, Reed, comes back into the picture, things go even more out of control and Jade has to decide between love and hate. Which is it?
My Review
This is a pretty short novella, and there’s not much I can say about the plot without spoilers, but I will say that it was interesting and I enjoyed it! It went by pretty quickly, and I really liked looking into the mind of Jade as she went through difficult situations in the book.
Which brings us to characters. The author, Christina Channelle, I feel, did a great job at creating an authentic character. Jade’s emotions were just all so raw, so powerful, and the author handled them quite well, especially when her emotions were conflicted (which was most of the time). I really got to see who this sharp-tongued girl really was, understand her confusion, the difficulty of being angry and upset at someone, yet unable to express those emotions to said person, or the difficulty of hating someone yet loving them as the same time.
What I liked about the writing style was that it really spoke as the character. There are swear words mentioned throughout the book, and although I could’ve done better with a bit less swear words, I actually thought it was a needed addition, because it let me get to know how this character thought; what she was like, and how she spoke. It made Jade seem more like a real person, and that, I really liked.
Another thing I enjoyed about the writing style was that the author didn’t tell us everything right away, about the history between Jade and Reed. We get little bits of information at times, and we get to piece it together, which, not only made me more engaged in the book, it was intriguing to read about.
Overall…
A very well-written mature YA/NA novella! There is swearing in this book, and a few romance scenes, but overall, considering how most NA books are these days, this book was quite mild, and I liked that. It’s an intriguing novella that got me invested in the characters in a short amount of time, and has a nice writing style. If you’re looking to start somewhere in the NA genre, this could be a good start.
Don’t forget those four letter words! What is it, you ask? Why, it’s good and book, of course! If you want to eat something NA, you should try this out.
-A
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