Review: Make It Count–Megan Erickson

Make It Count – Megan Erickson

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

My Rating:

Kat Caruso wishes her brain had a return policy, or at least a complaint hot-line. The defective organ is constantly distracted, terrible at statistics, and absolutely flooded with inappropriate thoughts about her boyfriend’s gorgeous best friend, Alec…who just so happens to be her brand new math tutor. Who knew nerd was so hot?

Kat usually goes through tutors like she does boyfriends—both always seem to bail when they realize how hopeless she is. It’s safer for her heart to keep everyone at arm’s reach. But Alec is always stepping just a little too close.

Alec Stone should not be fantasizing about Kat. She’s adorable, unbelievably witty, and completely off limits. He’d never stab his best friend in the back…

But when secrets are revealed, the lines of loyalty are blurred. To make it count, Alec must learn messy human emotions can’t be solved like a trigonometry function. And Kat has to trust Alec may be the first guy to want her for who she is, and not in spite of it

I started reading this book a couple of weeks ago. I had heard about it on a couple of blogs but never bought it because the whole falling for teacher thing did not appeal to me. I may be a big fan of the New Adult genre and I love me a good college set story, but there was just something that didn’t quite gel in the blurb for me. But then I saw it on offer for Kindle and I figured, why not? Good things had been said about it by those whose opinion I trust.

I’ve finished it now and I kind of feel like I should have trusted my gut, I liked the book, don’t get me wrong, but I seriously hated it in some ways. Maybe I expected too much or maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it at the time, I don’t know. I liked it in many ways. I liked Kat, I got her weird quirks and fear of not being accepted for who she was. At the same time she blew many a thing out of proportion. I know that’s a very normal thing which folks do, but it was way too dramatic for my liking.

I’m going to reveal a spoiler, a spoiler that isn’t even a spoiler because it was glaringly obvious to me in the first chapter, but Kat had dyslexia. I feel like the entire first half of the book was all non-subtle hints about it until the big reveal. I don’t know if dyslexia is a thing that is less well known in America or what, but the huge deal made out of Kat’s learning disability was ridiculous. I have grown up being well aware of what dyslexia is. I’m aware some people have difficulties reading and writing and that it is a thing people have struggled with and have learnt to cope with, but I was never aware of it being viewed in such a negative light. I remember people at school with dyslexia who were given certain considerations in their learning due to their disability, it was not viewed as such a negative thing, there was not bullying and stigma, and maybe I went to a very understanding school, but I found Kat’s reaction to discovering it jarring. I felt like the dyslexia was a big issue that was being tackled in the book and I was being beat over the head that it was normal and many suffered with it but it did not mean a person was stupid and all I could thing was ‘I know’.

I think dyslexia was used as a plot point to create an obstacle between Alec and Kat. I know dyslexia is a very real struggle and since I don’t suffer with it I know I can’t fully relate to Kat’s reaction to discovering she was dyslexic, but I feel like it was exaggerated. She had some very legitimate concerns, her parents and her reaction to them I understood. I even understood her reaction to Alec and her believing that he was attempting to ‘fix her’. I did not understand her reaction to discovering she was dyslexic and her reaction to Alec though.

Apart from the dyslexia issue, though, I really liked the story and the relationship. I liked the character of Kat, apart from the dyslexia thing, because you understood her insecurities. I understood her concerns about nobody accepting her as she is, and being concerned that people will bore of her when they realise she is not the person she often pretends to be. Those things in the book I understood and embraced. I loved the cure adorable romance, I liked the secondary characters, but there were some glaring issues in this book for me which meant I couldn’t give it a higher rating, I would probably have given it 2 and a half, but I don’t do half star ratings.

Have you read this book, and if so am I being a bit weird about the things I didn’t like in the book? Are there any books you’ve read despite your initial view of them, and should you have trusted your gut or were you pleasantly surprised?